Campaign 2012 moments: The "lazy" ad
Campaign moments capture the ebb and flow, the jousting and nitpicking and the frequent elusive grasp of the facts and context as candidates attempt to secure the highest offices in the land and a place in history. In this moment, GOP presidential nominee candidate Texas Gov. Rick Perry calls President Obama "pathetic" in a video advertisement, running in Iowa and national cable, for his remark that America collectively has not done enough to attract new businesses and private investment to the country over the last few decades.
OBAMA: "I think it's important to remember that the United States is still the largest recipient of foreign investment in the world. And there are a lot of things that make foreign investors see the U.S. as a great opportunity -- our stability, our openness, our innovative free market culture.
"But we've been a little bit lazy, I think, over the last couple of decades. We've kind of taken for granted -- well, people will want to come here and we aren't out there hungry, selling America and trying to attract new business into America. And so one of things that my administration has done is set up something called SelectUSA that organizes all the government agencies to work with state and local governments where they're seeking assistance from us, to go out there and make it easier for foreign investors to build a plant in the United States and put outstanding U.S. workers back to work in the United States of America."
PERRY: "Can you believe that?" he says. "That's what our President thinks wrong with America? That Americans are lazy? That's pathetic."
Perry "Lazy" campaign ad
