Newark Mayor Cory Booker traveled across the entire country to deliver a speech to Democrats in Seattle, where he jokingly told them he had been advised by the Obama campaign to avoid sticking his foot in his mouth again.
Booker was referring to the media storm he created when he went on Meet the Press two weeks ago and criticized the Obama campaign for making attacking Republic Mitt Romney as a job killer while running the venture capital firm he founded, Bain Capital. After Booker called the attacks “nauseating,” it was later revealed that Booker received $36,000 in campaign contributions from Bain Capital during his 2002 mayoral run and and a total of more than $565,000 from Wall Street financiers.
Republicans quickly tried to use Booker’s words in a defense of Romney’s business record, starting a petition drive with the title “I Stand With Cory”—which prompted Booker to send out a tweet that said “Let me be clear, #IStandWithObama,” then he went on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show to say he was upset by how the Republicans were manipulating his words.
The fact that Democrats and the Obama campaign sent Booker to Seattle to speak to the Washington state Democratic Party convention likely means that he has been forgiven for his Bain Capital gaffe and welcomed back into the fold. According to reports, his speech contained the appropriate praise for the president, which is what you would expect from a loyal Obama surrogate.
