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"He is offering them up as change," he continued. "We know what change looks like. And what the governor is offering sure ain't change." But the president sought to link his own policies to the past as well. Obama tied his calls for raising taxes on higher-income earners and spending more on science and research with similar policies implemented under President Bill Clinton. Obama's message to voters was that if the economy thrived when Clinton took those steps, it would do the same again, under him, during a second term. "We know the ideas that worked," Obama said. "We also know the ideas that don't work. Because in the eight years after Bill Clinton left office, his policies were reversed." Obama's campaign has been crafting the president's closing argument for weeks. Aides had hoped to roll it out earlier this week, but were forced to push it back after the storm interrupted the president's travel plans. Even though Obama drew contrasts with Romney throughout his remarks, his closing argument included less direct criticism of his GOP rival than his earlier campaign speeches. Gone was one of the president's most biting criticisms of Romney: his sarcastic diagnosis of "Romnesia," a term Obama coined to mean forgetting previously held positions. The president opened his remarks Thursday by asking Americans to remember those affected by the flooding, snow and fires that have devastated some communities. In doing so, he harkened back to the past once again, echoing his call for national unity from the 2004 Democratic convention speech that made him a political star. "There are no Democrats or Republicans during a storm," Obama said. "There are just fellow Americans."
[Associated
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