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CANTON, OH -- Mitt Romney opened his final day of campaigning in Ohio with a focus on the economy, a simple, disciplined message his campaign hopes will propel him to victory in this key Super Tuesday state.
"If you think this campaign against President Obama is going to be about the economy, and jobs, and government being too big, then I’m the guy you need to nominate. That's what I know. That's what I've done," Romney said this morning in remarks described by a campaign aide as his "closing arugment."
Romney has sought throughout the campaign to focus on the economy and his record as governor, and in the private sector. But the GOP primary battle has found itself stuck more on social issues over the past month -- issues that helped boost former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum enough to mount a credible challenge to Romney.
Romney has closed his deficit against Santorum in Ohio to a gap within the margin of error, according to the latest round of polling in the state. A top Romney adviser credited the candidate's economic focus and robust ground game for the campaign's momentum in the Buckeye State.
"[Romney] has been surging this week just because he’s boots on the ground, spreading his pro-jobs message," Senior Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom told reporters before the first of three campaign stops today. "He’s not like other candidates who get distracted by non-economic issues. He stays focused on the economy and I think that more than anything else explains why he’s surging.”
True to form, Romney used a lesson learned in his private equity career as a rhetorical weapon against President Obama this morning.
"We used to have, we used to joke, three rules for turning around an enterprise in trouble, and the rules were these: focus, focus and focus," Romney explained.
"When our president came into office there was one key job in front of him; and that was to get this economy going and put people back to work. But instead of focusing his energy on that topic, he instead went off on a whole series of other things he wanted to do," Romney said. "He focused on a whole series of things other than the job at hand. And one of the reasons we're having such difficulty coming out of the downturn we're in is because the president has failed to focus on what was most important to America, which is getting good jobs again."
Romney also turned his economic-focused message against his Republican rivals, although not by name.
"Other people in this race have debated about the economy, they've read about the economy, they've talked about it in subcommittee meetings, but I've actually been in it," Romney said. "I've worked in business. I understand what it takes to get a business successful and to thrive. I understand how it is that government gets in the way."
As the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows Romney once again regaining the lead nationally for the Republican nomination, with 38 percent of respondents backing the former Massachusetts governor. Fehrnstrom also suggested that regardless of the results of Tuesday's contests, the party appears to be coalescing around Romney.
"You saw yesterday Eric Cantor endorsed, followed by Senator Coburn in Oklahoma. This morning former Missouri Governor and Attorney General John Ashcroft endorsed," Fehrnstrom said. "So the party has already begun to coalesce behind Mitt Romney and we expect that we will pick up more endorsements after Tuesday."
That rallying around Romney, if it's happening, can't come soon enough. The NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll also showed Romney's favorabilty rating dropping to 28 percent from 31 percent in January, with Republican pollster Bill McInturff describing the effect of the elongated primary as "corrosive" to the Republican brand.
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When push comes to shove...
And you need a little ♥...
Vote for none of the above...
Obama/Biden 2012
Yes, focus on shoring up short-term profits by slashing jobs, cutting benefits, and failing to make necessary infrastructure investments.
Focus on tricking investors, or even the federal government, into giving you great big gobs of cash, based on the apparent "improvements" to your bottom line.
And then focus on getting the H*ll out of Dodge with the money bags before anyone else figures out that you've ruined the company, sending it into bankruptcy and its community into long-term economic depression, like let's say ... Marion, Indiana, just to name one.
Focus, focus, focus.
Put your left foot in, put your left foot out ... what if hokus focus is really what it's all about?
Mitt---the Presidency is all about multi-tasking. The President doesn't get to say--today is the day I focus on the economy if Israel decides that day to bomb Iran. Are you saying you aren't qualified to do anything but work on the economy and we should instead trust your foreign policy advisors----you know, the ones you hired from the Bush admininistration? They did such a good job the first time around.
So funny, Romney's been running for president more years than President Obama has been president...
Molly says:
"Focus on tricking investors, or even the federal government, into giving you great big gobs of cash, based on the apparent "improvements" to your bottom line.
And then focus on getting the H*ll out of Dodge with the money bags before anyone else figures out that you've ruined the company, sending it into bankruptcy and its community into long-term economic depression."
Thanks for your on-point description of the massive 'green energy ' Solyndra failure of the Obama Administration.
ABC News Nightline reported how many rich execs have looted the green companies by taking huge bonuses, just before they file for bankruptcy, and just after clueless Joe Biden tours their plants, crowing about the new green economy...
Mitt sounds like he never heard of multi-tasking.
Anybody else get the impression Mitt walked into Brooks Brothers and said, "Give me some regular guy clothes?"
I'm betting he can't wait for this to be over (one way or the other) so he can shed his feigned persona...Romney's much more comfortable in a suit and tie but you rarely see him in anything but blue jeans on the campaign trail. Hell, they won't even let him iron a crease in them!
Keep up the personal attacks, moonbats. The leftist nastiness can only help the moderate voters to support Mitt, over radical zealot-supported Obama.
Romney maintains economic focus...
You mean he's buying votes in Ohio, too.
Romney can't out conservative the guys he's running against on social issues.
With the primary out of the way Romney hopes to focus the attention on the economy.
Sadly for him, these other guys have already tainted the water he's having to swim in.
The Republican establishment knows full well Romney is their best hope. That is why guys like Cantor have endorsed him in advance of Super Tuesday. Let's put it this way: If Romney gets the nomination, who do you think all those Santorum supporters are going to vote for in November? The Kenyan Muslim socialist? Ultimately, that is the group that will pretty much do whatever Rupert Murdoch tells them to do. But let's look at the reverse. If Santorum wins the nomination, do you think all of the Romney supporters will just back Slick Rick? Of course some of them will, but this is the wing of the party that has not jumped ship from one extremist to the other. This is the wing that did not jump on the Bachman/Perry/Cain/Gingrich/Santorum bandwagon (in that order and I left out Trump). In other words, this is the wing that has some common sense. Therefore, they may choose not to vote come November if Obama and Santorum are the choices. Or they may (gasp) actually vote for Obama.
The GOPers who actually have a grip on reality understand this and that is why they want Romney to just win it already.
Their best hope is a guy who isn't even trusted by members of his own party, and who can't connect with anyone who couldn't qualify for the swankiest New England country clubs?
Not much of a 'best hope.' I still say their best hope comes from brokering a convention, get through a first vote without a clear winner, and then just picking someone else.
A brokered convention may actually be their best hope if they go with someone who has not been in the primaries up to this point. Choosing someone who has not been dragged through the mud may be the better alternative. This way, a Republican can start campaigning for the general election without having to pander to the extremist base. Like I said, that base would vote for Casey Anthony if Fox told them to so appeasing them in the general election is pointless. But if my choices are the guy who wants people to go to college vs. the guy who thinks college is for snobs or the guy who's trying to pretend he's not a snob, I don't have much to think about. 8 years of Obama it is.
Thanks for the useless liberal talking points. If you dont mind, the Republicans will choose their nominee without the advice of zealot leftists, who havent a clue.
Not a one of these bozo's thought we were headed for the worst economy in over 70 years. They all thought it would turn around quick.
You can do a word count on all of Romney's speeches from 07 - 08 and the word economy doesn't even hit the top twenty list.
Great point!
Who are the folks who voted for "anybody but Romney" going to vote for if he ends up getting the nomination? He is not liked in his own party, least of all by the extremists who are in control of the party. He is totally out of touch with ordinary people and has said and done and will say and do things that ordinary people will eithr cringe at or cannot relate to.
As a dog lover, I wonder about someone who treats dogs like he did Seamus let alone all the other issues to boot. If this is the best the once grand old party has to offer Obama should win by a landslide.
Newt is worse and leading in Georgia,,,, come on , Think people, Think.....please
Oh, the economy? What? The GOP is gonna stop talking/preaching about sex?
"If you think this campaign against President Obama is going to be about the economy, and jobs, and government being too big, then I’m the guy you need to nominate. That's what I know. That's what I've done," Romney said...
This weekend I read an article about a town in Ohio who has lost most of it's corporate tax revenue & funding (thank you Gov K). They've let most of the staff go...the Mayor remains. The street lights will be turned off, etc etc. I can't help but think Kasich is on the hot seat for the predicament of this town and MANY others. They are now feeling the real effects of "smaller government".
Is Governor Romney sounding a little tone deaf in light of what is trickling down to these towns/citizens...at this very moment?
Right on, Vermont Girl! At this very moment, thanks to you, I'll be thinking of those people in Ohio. There are many things we should be THANKING our government for! Politics and tornadoes can be very scary, yet our government is there to help. When politics enter that good brand of American people, it is those people who feel the pain the most.
Willard Romney the Herbert Hoover of the 21 century, if he becomes president.
Ref. CNN article: “income goes up ... especially for the rich”.
It is amazing that with these statistics constantly demonstrating the drastic imbalance caused by the concentration on benefiting "the few" and ignoring, even greatly costing, the majority, including the total middle-class, that there is any doubt, any lack of recognition that there is an aggressive effort going on to keep pushing this country into being a two-class society with "the few", "the money" then competing in having it all while the majority continues to 'pay the price" and keeps loosing. The Democrats are far from "all pure and holy" but the Republican / Tea Party is literally bought and owned by "the money" and just serves as "puppets" in stubbornly and arrogantly pursuing only their political ambitions (and own greed) by concentrating on the interests of "the few" for their strong support, including for the abundant finances, influence and power used to con the people and manipulate public opinion.
It has been said that the current Republican Party is incapable of honestly and responsibly governing and throughout the last twelve years they have totally substantiated that. The pity is whenever the people are conned by the appeals to their biases and emotions and they are then manipulated and used to their own disadvantage. It would be nice to have more "centrists / moderates" to choose from but we are even loosing them (like Stowe) because of the frustration they experience and the aggressive pressures on them (from Norquist, Cheney, Rove,,,) to squelch their individual consciences and to force total unity to firmly support the limited interests of "the few". If the people don't wake up and see the reality, we may just be returned to "more of the same", Bush-Cheney style, with the majority continuing to loose. The only way to regain a GOP sincerely interested in the people is to totally reject what they have become, to reject their propaganda used to sway and control the people as "pawns", to become insulted for being taken for granted and to firmly reject the "puppet" politicians.
Romney's economic push is not a push at all. With the concentration of wealth in fewer and fewer hands and the concentration of power in fewer, less generous hands at the local level one can imagine how our country would fare. The TEA-GOP-Republicans heavily cry out for Medicare/Medicaid reform at the expense of the lower class or marginal people who need it to maintain a minimal dignity. They attack all the Social programs and want entitlements to go away at any expense. It's like Romney said, "I don't care about the poor people", but the sad reality is this millionaire paid just 13.7% in taxes on his 21 million income in 2010. The TEA-GOP-Republicans want to block grants to the states where the TEA party is strong and controls the monies and power and can effect severe restraints on those who most need or require assistance. The TEA-GOP-Republicans is comprised of numerous TEA members who are the confrontational segment of this strain.
Santorum has little or no chance to win Ohio simply because he did not complete the paperwork in time to get his name on the ballot in two-thirds of the counties.
Some president he would make.
Mutts Against Mitt!
Romney`s win in Wash should not be taken for granted. The precinct caucuses were just the first step of five before any delegates can be counted. Our GOP is often unpredictable. One year they went for Pat Robertson in the caucuses, but I believe Bush Sr got the votes at the national convention. Also, I wish negative campaigning would vanish, but it has been around since there have been politicians. The modern variety started with a pair of Californians named Clem Whittaker and Leonie Baxter. Their idea was to focus on one thing and harp on it all the time. The drill was to find or invent out of thin air something to discredit the opposition. The all-time champion at that was Richard Nixon. In fact, he pushed it so hard, he ended up discrediting his own administration.
Maybe Mitt can establish a "laser focus on jobs".
Oh, wait. That didn't work very well for Obama. Obama's focus is on raising our gas prices to the point that even a $41,000 Chevy Volt begins to look attractive.
Obama has raised the tax credit for buying a revolting volt to $10,000. What the hell, it isn't his money......it's ours.
Can anyone name one program that Obama has succeeded at? Just one?? Where did we dig up this loser anyway??