Romney cites record on positive changes
Switches pitch in final run to Iowa caucuses
ROCK RAPIDS, Iowa - Mitt Romney, debuting a new pitch to Iowa voters in the final sprint to Thursday's caucuses, cast himself yesterday as the King Midas of change in the business world, the 2002 Winter Olympics, and the governor's office in Massachusetts.
"I've brought change to everything I've touched," Romney declared at the first stop of a five-day bus tour across Iowa. "And I'm going to bring change to America to make sure we overcome the challenges we face and we're an even stronger, greater nation going forward."
In a new stripped-down stump speech, Romney jettisoned much of the heartwarming banter about Iowa corn, his wife's meatloaf, and his belief in "heartland values" that he used to appeal to Iowa voters in early campaigning.
Instead, he focused on his image as a seasoned turnaround expert capable of tackling the gravest challenges America faces: Islamic extremism, competition from China, dependence on foreign oil, illegal immigration, and substandard education.
"I believe my background in leading and guiding change and dealing with big problems is exactly what America needs right now," Romney said in Sergeant Bluff.
He never mentioned his rivals by name and took no questions from audiences as he made fast-paced, 20-minute stops in northwest Iowa. At each stop, Romney's wife, Ann, also took a prominent role, speaking for nearly as long as he did and stressing her husband's commitment to family.
She recalled how her husband would call home when he was away on business and she was struggling to care for their five sons. "He reminded me that what I was doing was more important than what he was doing, and that what I was doing was lasting," Ann Romney said.
She also talked about being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1998 and recalled how after three years of battling depression, fatigue, and numbness, her husband chose her as his personal hero to run the Olympic torch into Salt Lake City.
At each stop yesterday in six staunchly conservative, heavily Dutch-American farming towns, he was introduced by US Representative Pete Hoekstra, a Michigan Republican who was born in the Netherlands.
After listening to Romney at a café in Rock Rapids, Jim Kelly, 67, a corn, soybean, and hog farmer, said he was impressed but still undecided about whom to support.
"If he can get elected in Massachusetts and fix their healthcare system, he's got a leg up on some of the others," Kelly said.
But he said his caucus precinct would probably support Romney's chief Republican rival in Iowa, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who is leading in the polls. Kelly noted that his caucus supported the conservative activist Gary Bauer in 2000.
"They're all hard, Christian conservatives," Kelly said.
Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com. 