Obama, Romney spar over 'revenge' comment

WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney Saturday criticized President Barack Obama for telling supporters in Ohio Friday "voting is the best revenge."

The president was speaking at a campaign rally in Springfield and some in the audience booed when he mentioned Romney's name.

"No, no, no -- don't boo, vote," Obama said to applause. "Vote! Voting is the best revenge."

Romney mentioned the president's choice of words during a speech later Friday, and asked supporters to vote not out of revenge but for "love of country."

The Romney campaign has produced an ad called "Revenge or love of country," using clips from the Friday speeches, Politico reported.

Romney brought the matter up in a speech Saturday in New Hampshire.

"Yesterday, the president said something you may have heard by now, that I think surprised a lot of people," he said. "Speaking to an audience, he said voting is the best revenge. He told his supporters, voting for 'revenge.' Vote for 'revenge'? Let me tell you what I'd like to tell you: vote for love of country. It is time we lead America to a better place."

When a reporter asked Obama campaign spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki Saturday what the president meant by using the word "revenge," she said it was "important to remember that the context of when the president said that was as he was laying out the fact that Mitt Romney is closing his campaign with an ad full of scare tactics that's frightening workers in Ohio and thinking falsely that they're not going to have a job."

"And the message he was sending is, if you don't like the policies, if you don't like the plan that Governor Romney is putting forward, if you think it's a bad deal for the middle class, then you have power -- you can go to the voting booths and you can cast your ballot," Psaki said. "It's nothing more complicated than that."