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US presidential candidate Mitt Romney campaigns at LeClaire Manufacturing in Bettendorf, Iowa, yesterday |
With Romney, 65, set to be officially named the presidential candidate of his Republican Party at its convention in Tampa, Florida August 27-30, he hopes to capture that sentiment and propel himself into the White House.
But the rally in suburban Virginia leading up to the convention illustrated the challenges facing the campaign. Virginia, a state Republicans hope to win back in November, shows Romney with just a slight edge. A week ago the numbers were flipped in the state, which the Democrats won in 2008 for the first time since 1964.
The race has been similarly tight nationally, with competing opinion surveys by pollsters Rasmussen and Gallup variously show either Obama or Romney with a narrow lead.
Christopher Smith, 38, attended the Republican campaign rally that featured newly minted vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan, 42, as speaker. With a master’s degree in business administration, he sees one issue at the forefront ahead of November elections: jobs.
“I came out of MBA school and there were no jobs. The only hope for jobs is to have a change,” said Smith. He described himself as “underemployed” and said he admires Romney’s business experience.
The Romney campaign hopes to keep the focus on unemployment figures that remain stubbornly above 8%, a historic doom-sayer for US presidents seeking re-election. With the addition of budget-cutter Ryan to the campaign earlier this month, Romney has drawn a sharp contrast with Obama.
“The president’s campaign is all about division and attack and hatred,” Romney told CBS News. “My campaign is about getting America back to work and creating greater unity in this country, which, of course, has always been the source of America’s vitality and strength.”
Romney hoped that Ryan as his running mate would focus attention on his goal of getting ballooning government debt under control. The choice has also focused attention on plans to reform healthcare for pensioners.
Democrats have painted Romney and Ryan as extreme conservatives and note that Ryan has not provided the lift past presidential picks have.
At the rally, Matt Riordan, 47, noted that the youthful congressman had an ability to “speak to the common man.” Romney has been faulted for the opposite.
$6-7mn in one fundraising day
White House hopeful Mitt Romney raked in as much as $7mn in a single day of fundraising on Tuesday as the Republican padded his campaign war chest for the showdown with President Barack Obama.
Travelling press secretary Rick Gorka said Romney would clear somewhere between $6mn and $7mn from two events in Texas, a safely conservative state that is the primary home of the lucrative US oil industry.
Hundreds of donors shelled out as much as $50,000 for a place at receptions at an exclusive hotel in Houston, and the Petroleum Club in Midland, Texas.