WASHINGTON — For Brad Woodhouse, the spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, it was when he came across a Twitter post about a CNN interview in which Mitt Romney seemed to shrug off concern for the very poor.
Bill Burton's moment came a week and a half ago, while he was watching Romney take Newt Gingrich to task for talking about putting a colony on the moon. If someone made such a proposal to him, Romney said, "I'd say, 'You're fired.' ''
Both moments were perceived by President Barack Obama's re-election campaign as another gift from Romney — dubbed "the gift that keeps on giving" by some on the president's team.
"Just when you thought we had enough videotape about him firing people, he gives you one more," said Burton, who leads a political action committee supporting Obama.
Now that Romney appears to be cementing his position as the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination — he handily won Saturday's Nevada caucuses — Obama's aides and campaign staff have intensified their focus.
As an example, Woodhouse, a high-octane party spinmaster, was getting his children ready for school around 7 a.m. Wednesday when he spotted it: "Romney on CNN: I'm not concerned about the very poor," the blogger Rachel Weiner reported over Twitter.
Woodhouse sprang to action. "It was a two-fer!" he said.
"First, it was just the most incredibly insensitive thing that someone in his position could say." And second, Woodhouse said, "he gave us an opening to go after his record on the middle class," since Romney's comments were part of an effort to show that it is the middle class he is actually concerned about.
Woodhouse promptly reposted Romney's comments on Twitter. Then he sent an email to a list of reporters, "just in case everyone hadn't seen it," he said.
Minutes later, Woodhouse was on a conference call with several campaign and White House officials, discussing the remarks.
To be clear, Romney said he was not concerned about the very poor because they have a safety net, one he said he would fix if needed. Rather, he said, "I'm concerned about the very heart of America, the 90 percent to 95 percent of Americans who right now are struggling."
Obama partisans came up with their plan for the day.
"It was clear by 9 a.m. that this thing had a life of its own," Woodhouse said, as Romney tried to clarify his remarks while news anchors, bloggers and reporters gave his comments round-the-clock coverage. Woodhouse sat back and enjoyed the melee for a few hours.
"We took some time to let a thousand flowers bloom," Woodhouse said. "And then we took out our ad."
"In a shallow attempt to show concern for the middle class, Mitt Romney told CNN today he's not concerned about the very poor," the ad said. "But his policy proposals make clear that he also isn't very concerned about the middle class — his tax plan provides a modest tax cut, about $167, for middle-class families but provides about $146,000 for families making more than $1 million."
It continued: "Mitt Romney: Not concerned about the poor, or the middle class."
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