In announcing presidential bid, Romney to focus on economy, Obama
Mitt Romney this morning is planning to announce his presidential bid by delivering a forceful speech that continues to criticize President Obama’s handling of the economy.
The former Massachusetts governor and Bain Capital executive will also seek to portray himself as the candidate with the know-how to get the country’s economy back on track.
“When Barack Obama came to office, we wished him well and hoped for the best,” Romney plans to say, according to excerpts of the speech. “Now, in the third year of his four-year term, we have more than promises and slogans to go by. Barack Obama has failed America.”
Democrats, meanwhile, are poised to continue focusing most of their own attacks on Romney, with plans for conference calls and the release of a new video tagging him as a wishy-washy politician. The video, called "Romney: Same Candidate, Different Positions," is being released this morning by the Democratic National Committee.
Romney, during his announcement at Doug and Stella Scamman’s Bittersweet Farm in Stratham, N.H., will also reiterate his call for repealing the health care law spearheaded by President Obama and passed last year by a Democrat-controlled Congress. Romney's own health care plan in Massachusetts, which shares many similarities with the national plan, is seen as one of his biggest political hurdles.
Romney today will also reiterate a call for capping federal spending at 20 percent of gross domestic product, which has been the average during recent decades. But federal spending has increased dramatically in recent years as a result of things like the federal stimulus and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Spending as a percentage of GDP is expected to be 25.3 percent this year, the highest level since 1945, according to figures compiled by the Office of Management and Budget.
“My generation will pass the torch to the next generation, not a bill,” Romney plans to say today.
Romney will also recount the story of Kathy and Dave Tyler, a family that lives in a neighborhood dotted with foreclosed homes in North Las Vegas. Romney visited their home two months ago.
“That neighborhood is being crushed by this Obama economy,” he plans to say. “First their neighbors started losing their jobs, and then their homes. And all around them now are abandoned houses, and abandoned dreams.”
Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @mviser.
About Political Intelligence
Glen Johnson is Politics Editor at boston.com and lead blogger for "Political Intelligence." He moved to Massachusetts in the fourth grade, and has covered local, state, and national politics for over 25 years. E-mail him at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen. |
