header graphic

Romney for President, Inc.

"Take China To The Mat" +
  2:14 web video from July 27, 2011.

Obama: “China is a competitor...”

[SFX]

TEXT: FOUR YEARS AGO PRESIDENT OBAMA PROMISED TO TAKE CHINA TO THE MAT

Obama: “…as long as we understand that they are going to be negotiating aggressively.”

[SFX]

TEXT: PROMISING TO CREATE JOBS BY OPENING MARKETS LIKE CHINA

Obama: “We've got to have a president in the White House who's negotiating to make sure that we're looking after American workers.”

[Music]

TEXT: Screen Machine Industries  Pataskala, OH
Steve Cohen: This is a great American company from bringing in raw steel to rolling out the finished product. 

But what we don’t have is we don’t have the leadership in the White House right now to create these fair trade practices to protect this intellectual property, to open up these markets for us to be able to do so.

I’m Steve Cohen.  I’m President of Screen Machine Industries.  President Obama has stated that he was going to literally take China ‘to the mat.’”

Obama: “[T]hey're manipulating their currency, that we take them to the mat on that issue.”

[SFX]

Steve Cohen: In China, there doesn’t seem to be that intellectual property protection.  In fact, there are some companies in China that actually take pictures of our machines and white out the name of our machine and imprint their own name on our machine.  So if someone in China or even in the United States looks up this Chinese website it’ll look like they’re selling our machines in China.

Obama: “China is a competitor … That means enforcing our trade agreements.”

[SFX]

Steve Cohen: There doesn’t seem to be any effort at all to combat intellectual property theft in China. Without this protection, you’re going to find American companies such as us very leery about opening up business in China.  Our company has a strong desire to want to create jobs because we believe in the American manufacturing idea of building the better product here.  We want to maintain and create these jobs.

What we have with the Obama administration are not helping our company expand and are not creating the atmosphere to allow us to create new jobs.

Obama: “[A]nd we've got to have a president in the White House who's negotiating to make sure that we're looking after American workers.”

[SFX]

TEXT: Yes. We. Do.

[SFX]

TEXT: November 6, 2012


Notes: The video uses clips from then candidate Obama's speech at the AFL-CIO Candidates Forum on Aug. 7, 2007.  The clips of Obama are manipulated substantially; they are shaded over, partial images of the screen are used, and text is run on top.  The audio track of Obama is also manipulated; his speaking is low and a bit muffled, conveying weakness, and several times an echo effect is introduced.

According to the press release:

"Four years ago, candidate Barack Obama promised to take China 'to the mat' on trade and currency issues. However, four years later, these promises have not been kept. Today, Romney for President launched a new web video, 'Take China To The Mat,' which highlights President Obama’s failure to hold China accountable for manipulating its currency, stealing American intellectual property, and failing to open its markets to American companies."