• Republicans in Charlotte pounce on Obama's 'incomplete' grade

    By NBC's Andrew Rafferty

     

    CHARLOTTE, NC -- Republicans gathered here to counter the Democratic National Convention seized Tuesday on President Barack Obama's self-grade of "incomplete" after his first term.

    Picking up on the grade the president gave himself with a Colorado television affiliate, a series of Republicans pounced during a press conference at at the Nascar Hall of Fame, where Republicans have set up camp during the DNC.

    "I have a 10-year-old and a 14-year-old. I know if on their report card they came home with an incomplete that means they failed," said South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

    The Romney campaign, backed by the RNC, is holding its own counter-convention in Charlotte this week, primarily challenging the president's record on the economy. Andrea Saul discusses.

    When asked to grade his time in the Oval Office, the president told a local Colorado television station on Monday: "You know I would say incomplete ... but what I would say is the steps that we have taken in saving the auto industry, in making sure that college is more affordable and investing in clean energy and science and technology and research, those are all the things that we are going to need to grow over the long term."

    Former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, Rep. Tim Scott and former Deputy Administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration Jovita Carranza also spoke at the press conference and all used it as an opportunity to slam the president's self assessment.

    "When the president was asked what grade he would give himself, he obviously had a quick look at his report card and saw a big 'I' on it.  He thought the 'I' was for incomplete. The 'I' was for incompetent," said Sununu.

    And tea party favorite Rep. Tim Scott (R-SC) was able to draw on some personal experience when giving his interpretation of the president's answer. 

    "I understand an incomplete is a way to avoid a failing grade. As a freshman in high school, I flunked out," he said. "When you're in that situation you really want something that looks like an incomplete grade, but unfortunately what you get from the people who are actually grading you is a failed grade.  Our president was asked the question: Are we better off? It's a failed grade."

    NBC's Savannah Guthrie and Meet The Press moderator David Gregory join Brian Williams to discuss this week's events at the Democratic National Convention.

    Haley also addressed women's issues just hours before Democrats are set to kick off their convention. One of Tuesday night's most-watched speakers will be Michele Obama, who is expected to stress her husband's humble upbringing. The well-liked first lady has been one of the Obama campaign's strongest assets in appealing to women voters.

    As Planned Parenthood held a rally just a block away, Haley attempted to downplay the notion that abortion rights issues have alienated women from the Republican party.

    "Let me tell you about women.  Women are extremely smart.  Woman are extremely right.  We don't only think about contraception. We think about a lot more then contraception. I know pro-life women that are in the Democratic Party. I know pro-choice women that are in the Republican Party.  but I also know that all women care about their budgets, they care about their jobs, they care about the economy," she said.

    Slideshow: Democratic National Convention

    David Goldman / AP

    Democrats gather in Charlotte, N.C., to officially nominate President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden as the party's candidates for the 2012 presidential election.

    Launch slideshow

  • South Carolina embraces Romney, but will it vote for him?

    By NBC's Garrett Haake and Ali Weinberg

    Randall Hill / Reuters

    Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney greets supporters after a town hall meeting Saturday at the Horry-Georgetown Technical College Grand Strand Conference Center in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

    MYRTLE BEACH, SC-- For the 24 hours after his flight touched down in the South Carolina, presidential hopeful Mitt Romney was received like a rock star here.

    Friday afternoon, with Gov. Nikki Haley, R-SC, at his side, Romney drew a crowd so large that the Greenville fire station hosting the event had to shut its doors. When the fire marshal and the fire chief are the same person, you listen to what he says.

    In two stops Saturday with Haley, Romney drew crowds dwarfing those he typically gets in Iowa and New Hampshire. At the last event in Myrtle Beach, police estimated 500 people crammed into a small auditorium and overflow room to hear the governor as Romney advance staff searched desperately for extra chairs.

    Paul Peterson, a political science professor at nearby Coastal Carolina University who was in attendance, said that the crowd was bigger than any he saw at a Romney event during the 2008 South Carolina primary campaign.

    But local political observers say boisterous town halls are the norm in the Palmetto state. It begs the question: can a weekend rock-star Romney - the same man who finished a distant third in the 2008 primary here - actually win the state?

    Romney currently trails former House Speaker Newt Gingrich here by 19 points, according to the latest NBC News/Marist poll. The same poll shows daunting challenges for Romney: 60 percent of likely voters here say they see the former Massachusetts governor as either a moderate or liberal. That's a problem in a state where seventy percent of likely voters consider themselves conservative or very conservative.

    The Romney campaign hopes the endorsement of the conservative Haley, whose approval numbers have slid to just 35 percent statewide according to a Winthrop University poll, could stem the tide. Her 53 percent approval rating among Republicans statewide, her outsize national profile and her full-throated endorsement certainly can't hurt.

    "He’s no longer a candidate that’s trying to win. He’s already a leader that knows what he wants to do the first day he gets into office," Haley told reporters yesterday by way of explaining her decision. She added that the "icing on the cake" was the Obama administration's continuing attacks on Romney, which proved he was a "real threat."

    If Haley's endorsement could inspire one group whose votes Romney needs here, it would be Tea Party supporters, who according to NBC/Marist polling make up half of likely voters in South Carolina, and who largely fueled Haley's candidacy in 2010. Many Tea Party supporters have been distrustful of Romney, particularly because of his identification with President Obama's healthcare plan, and have generally coalesced around other candidates thus far.

    Romney sought to allay Tea Party supporters' fears this morning, saying he could be the "ideal" candidate for them.

    "I think the Tea Party is anxious to have people who are outside Washington coming in to change Washington, as opposed to people who stayed in Washington for 30 years," Romney told reporters Saturday morning in Charleston. "And I believe on the issues as well that I line up with a smaller government , a less intrusive government, regulations being pared back, holding down the tax rates of the American people, maintaining a strong defense, and so many Tea Party folks are going to find me, I believe, to be the ideal candidate."

    But if Tea Party support never comes his way, at least one local republican leader suggested Romney could have a path to victory in the state by collecting the more moderate, non-activist voters in communities like Myrtle Beach.

    “This is the network that we can build,” said Johnny Bellamie, chairman of the Horry County Republican Party, at today's second town hall. “These are people that don’t normally go to the meetings, they’re just people who are interested in getting the right guy and that’s very encouraging.”

    But to build that network, Romney will likely need to fight here - a state he has visited only seven times this cycle.

    “He has to come here more to sustain this. He has to spend more face time in South Carolina because he hasn’t been here,” Bellamie said.

    With less than a month to go - and New Hampshire and Iowa looming large - before South Carolina casts its votes, will he have time? 

    Related story: Mitt Romney snags Des Moines Register endorsement in Iowa

  • Haley says she started with 'blank slate' in deciding endorsement

    By NBC's Ali Weinberg

     

    GREENVILLE, S.C. -- South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley told NBC News that she started from a “brand new slate” before deciding to endorse Mitt Romney for the 2012 Republican nomination, even as she supported his first presidential bid.
     
    “When I looked at all the candidates, what was so impressive is I’m no longer looking at a candidate that wants to win,” Haley told NBC in a phone interview today. “I’m looking at a leader that’s actually thought about what he’s going to do the first 30 days as president.”
     
    Haley said one of her defining criteria for endorsing this time around was that she didn’t want “anyone that had anything to do with the chaos which is Washington D.C.”
     
    “I didn’t want to support anyone who’s been involved or has any relationships in Washington,” she continued.
     
    Haley denied, however, that she was taking an implicit jab at Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker who's forced to defend his relationships with Washington entities like Freddie Mac during his career since leaving COngress on the campaign trail.
     
    “You’re not going to see me criticize any of the candidates. I have great respect for the candidates,” she said. “What I feel good about is I don’t have to bring down any other candidate to make Mitt Romney look good.”
     
    Gingrich is surging with Republican voters here, leading the field in a recent NBC/Marist poll with 42 percent of likely primary voters to Romney’s 23 percent.
     
    Haley also suggested that electability was a big issue in her decision-making process.
     
    “This is the one candidate that President Obama continues to go after time and time again shows me that he knows that’s the candidate that can beat him,” she said.
     
    Haley also pushed back on the notion that Romney isn’t spending enough time in South Carolina, as some top lawmakers, as well as South Carolina Republican Party chairman Chad Connelly recently said.
     
    “I think the fact that Gov. Romney is coming here today, I think the fact that he’s going to be here tomorrow, the fact he’s going on the air on TV shows his commitment to South Carolina and shows he’s going to work hard to earn everybody’s support here in the state,” she said.