Romney campaign trying to change the subject, White House says

Republican candidate Mitt Romney is trying "to change the subject" after an embarrassing secret video published online this week by pointing to an old clip of President Barack Obama, the White House said Wednesday, DPA reported.

An audio clip from 1998 of Obama talking about "redistribution" surfaced Tuesday and Republicans have used it to argue the president favours the redistribution of wealth. The Obama campaign says it was simply about making local government agencies more effective.

Obama can be heard saying in the 14-year-old clip, "I think the trick is figuring out how do we structure government systems that pool resources and hence facilitate some redistribution - because I actually believe in some redistribution, at least at a certain level to make sure that everybody's got a shot."

Romney pointed to remarks late Tuesday in defending himself against potentially damaging remarks of his own that were published at the leftist magazine Mother Jones' website.

In the secretly recorded video Romney charged that 47 per cent of Americans who support Obama are freeloaders "who believe the government has responsibility to care for them" from health care to food to housing, and who pay no income taxes.

Asked about the Obama video clip, White House spokesman Jay Carney said sometimes campaigns make desperate efforts to change the subject. He said political observers "have seen circumstances like this where a campaign is having a very bad day or a very bad week.