Booker stumps for Obama in NH, criticizes Romney

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By NBC’s Jo Ling Kent

GOFFSTOWN, PLYMOUTH, and DURHAM, NH – Just days after Mitt Romney’s New Jersey surrogate, Gov. Chris Christie, hit the road for Romney in Iowa, another New Jersey leader, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, yesterday campaigned for President Obama here in New Hampshire, where he criticized of Romney’s oft-cited “private sector experience” and issued a few jabs at Christie himself.

“I like to punish people with facts,” Booker told students at University of New Hampshire on Friday. “The other side often tries to distract you from the facts. Look at Mitt Romney’s first ad! Blatant lies. You can’t let people get away with that.”

Booker, seen as a rising star in the Democratic Party, questioned the flagship credential of Romney’s campaign: business and private-sector experience.

“There is no natural correlation between private sector business experience and how you’re going to do,” Booker told reporters in Plymouth.

“Unfortunately New Jersey is seeing that right now with the private-sector business experience of our former governor and the challenges that he’s facing right now,” Booker added, citing former New Jersey Gov. and Sen. Jon Corzine (D), who has found himself in the epicenter of a controversy surrounding MF Global, a brokerage firm. “Is it the private -ector business experience of a Bernie Madoff?”

“Now, I’m not comparing Romney to those folks with all due respect,” Booker said. “But I’m saying to you if you look at the presidents we all respect: Abraham Lincoln was a failure at business, was one of our greatest presidents. FDR didn’t have private-sector business experience, but did a great job. John F. Kennedy was a phenomenal president that didn’t have business experience. Those are false arguments. The reality is who has the better plan for the United States of America.”

The Newark mayor, who has been considering a run for Senate and New Jersey governor, also jabbed his state’s chief executive, Gov. Christie. Booker joked with students in Durham, “There’s a very shy governor of my state — you probably haven’t heard of him because he’s very soft spoken.”

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