(Newser)
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Speaking to a young crowd in Chicago yesterday, President Obama made his first public comments on Team Romney-Ryan since the latter became part of that equation. His take? His rivals' economic policies are little more than "trickle-down fairy dust." Such plans have been tried before, and "guess what? It didn't work," Obama said at one of five fundraisers in the city set to bring in a total of $4 million. Despite his criticisms, he rejected crowd booing over Ryan. The congressman, he said, "is a decent man. He's a family man." But he's promoting a Mitt Romney "vision that I fundamentally disagree with."
The trouble in Washington is intense partisanship, Obama said, according to the Chicago Tribune. "What's holding us back is a brand of Washington politics that says we are not going to compromise no matter what." But "do we go forward toward a new vision of an America in which prosperity is shared, or do we go backward to the same policies that got us into this mess in the first place?" The event's cheapest tickets were $51, a nod to Obama's recent birthday. Another fundraiser—the first to be held on his own front lawn since becoming president—cost $40,000 a head.
