Obama reacts to GOP debate

President Obama took aim at Republicans on Sunday while speaking at a fundraiser in Silicon Valley and shared his reaction to the audience at a recent GOP presidential debate booing a gay soldier who had asked a question about "don't ask, don't tell."

Here are his comments, relayed by AMERICAblog:

"Some of you here may be folks who actually used to be Republicans but are puzzled by what's happened to that party, are puzzled by what's happening to that party. I mean, has anybody been watching the debates lately? You've got a governor whose state is on fire denying climate change," he said, to applause. "It's true. You've got audiences cheering at the prospect of somebody dying because they don't have health care and booing a service member in Iraq because they're gay.

"That's not reflective of who we are," Mr. Obama said. "This is a choice about the fundamental direction of our country. 2008 was an important direction. 2012 is a more important election."

At the Fox News/Google GOP debate last week, Stephen Hill, a gay soldier in Iraq, said he had to "lie about who [he] was" to serve in the military up until the recent repeal of "don't ask, don't tell." In his recorded question, he asked the GOP presidential hopefuls if they would work to walk back the recent change in policy. When the question was presented to the candidates participating in the event, some members of the audience booed loudly.

Obama's comments came during a weekend fundraising tour in which the president took a noticeably more aggressive tone against Republican politicians and the conservative media.

Obama specifically criticized Texas Governor and GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry on Sunday. He jabbed the Lone Star State Republican for continuing to deny climate change while catastrophic fires ripped through his state.

"We're going to have a stark choice in this election," he asserted. "This is a choice about who we are and what we stand for and whoever wins this next election is going to set the template for this country for a long time to come."

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