T-Paw Ridicules 'Obamaneycare'

Politico reports:

In a calculated attack, Tim Pawlenty on Sunday took his most aggressive swipe yet at GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney, using a television interview to coin a cutting phrase that lumped together the health care plans of the former Massachusetts governor and President Obama.

“President Obama said that he designed Obamacare after Romneycare and basically made it Obamneycare,” Pawlenty said on “Fox News Sunday,” adding: “What I don’t understand is that they both continue to defend it.”

The Minnesotan’s assault on one of Romney’s chief vulnerabilities one day before a GOP debate in New Hampshire marks a significant ratcheting up of the campaign and signals the start of what will be an intense effort by Pawlenty and other Republican hopefuls to damage the frontrunner.

And the shots were clearly strategic: Just over an hour after Pawlenty coined the phrase on Fox, his campaign blasted out an email to reporters entitled: “Pawlenty on Obamneycare,” while his spokesman tweeted or retweeted four mentions of the phrase.

Pawlenty’s campaign then announced a new event at a healthcare facility tomorrow in Manchester. Aides tell POLITICO he won’t back off his new, offensive message while there. And if he has the opportunity, he’ll do so again at the evening debate, the first to include Romney.