[h=3]By LAURA MECKLER and SARA MURRAY[/h]
Getty ImagesMitt Romney speaks Thursday at the headquarters of Solyndra, the failed solar-panel firm in Fremont, Calif.
President Barack Obama's campaign moved Thursday to put Mitt Romney's economic record as governor of Massachusetts at the center of the presidential contest, arguing that Mr. Romney sold himself to voters as a job creator but didn't deliver.
It is the next phase in Mr. Obama's attempt to tear at his opponent's central premise—that Mr. Romney's business experience would make him a better shepherd of the economy than the president.
The new line of attack came on a day when Mr. Romney escalated his own criticism of Mr. Obama's stewardship of the economy, visiting Solyndra, the California solar-panel company that went bankrupt after receiving more than a half-billion dollars in federal loan guarantees.
Central to Mr. Obama's case is that Massachusetts ranked 47 out of the 50 states in job creation during Mr. Romney's tenure as governor, from 2003-2007, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In the four years before Mr. Romney took office, Massachusetts ranked 35th, and in the four years after he left, the state improved to 11th, according to calculations bythe nonpartisan Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation.
The Obama campaign laid out its case in a news conference and Web video. Mr. Romney, campaigning in California, replied that the unemployment rate in Massachusetts fell during his tenure to 4.7%, from 5.6%.
"I think 4.7%'s a pretty good number," Mr. Romney said. "My guess is the people of America would be very pleased if they could see a number like 4.7%." The national unemployment rate last month was 8.1%.
The unemployment rate in Massachusetts was a bit better than the national rate when Mr. Romney took office, but a little worse when he left.
Mr. Obama's focus on the Massachusetts economy is an effort to go on offense on a subject where he is most vulnerable, the tepid growth of the national economy under his presidency. The health of the U.S. economy will be in the spotlight again Friday, when the government reports monthly jobs numbers following two months of disappointing job creation.
Several economists based in Massachusetts said the data reflect the state's struggling economy after the burst of the late-'90s Internet-driven bubble, which hit Massachusetts hard. They say Mr. Romney neither hindered nor particularly boosted the state's economic fortunes and that as the nation as a whole recovered from recession, Massachusetts grew, but slowly.
Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, which advocates for what it describes as the efficient use of tax dollars, faulted Mr. Romney for not following up on a promise to develop a strategic economic plan, and for not living up to promises to attract businesses to the state. He said an increase in corporate taxes imposed to balance the budget—which Mr. Romney called closing loopholes—may have made the state less attractive to business.
But he lauded the Romney administration for focusing on preserving existing jobs in the state, what he called "invisible" work that made a big difference.
"I don't think there's any sugar coating that job creation performance during those four years was inadequate," said Michael D. Goodman, an economic sociologist at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, who edits a journal about the Massachusetts economy. "I quibble with the notion that a governor is responsible for that."
Still, he said, Mr. Romney argued as a candidate that he could do a better job of attracting business to the state. "I'm not aware of any evidence that this was the result," he said.
Fred Bayles, director of Boston University's State House program, which covers Massachusetts government and politics for newspapers and radio stations around the state, called Mr. Romney's economic record "particularly unremarkable."
On the campaign trail, the day unfolded with dueling news conferences by the Mr. Romney and the Obama camp.
"After selling himself to Massachusetts as an economic savior, the Massachusetts record was alarmingly weak," Obama senior strategist David Axelrod said at a news conference in Boston, staged in front of the Massachusetts State House.
Mr. Axelrod's news conference was dogged by heckling from a crowd of Romney supporters, who chanted slogans as Mr. Axelrod and other speakers strained to be heard. Several of the hecklers said they were volunteers with the Romney campaign.
Mr. Romney launched his own attack on Mr. Obama's economic record with his visit to Solyndra, in Fremont, Calif. The solar-panel firm filed for bankruptcy protection in September after receiving $535 milllion in government loan guarantees. Mr. Romney has seized on it as an example of the president's meddling in the private sector and picking winners and losers.
"Free enterprise to the president means taking money from the taxpayers and giving it freely to his friends," Mr. Romney said. He called the operation a failure and criticized the company's headquarters as particularly opulent.
The new line of attack from the Obama campaign followed a prolonged attack on Mr. Romney's tenure atop private-equity firm Bain Capital. Mr. Obama argued Bain was concerned with creating profits but not jobs, and his campaign pointed to businesses that failed and workers who were laid off.
—Mark Maremont contributed to this article.Write to Laura Meckler at [email protected] and Sara Murray at [email protected]
President Barack Obama's campaign moved Thursday to put Mitt Romney's economic record as governor of Massachusetts at the center of the presidential contest, arguing that Mr. Romney sold himself to voters as a job creator but didn't deliver.
It is the next phase in Mr. Obama's attempt to tear at his opponent's central premise—that Mr. Romney's business experience would make him a better shepherd of the economy than the president.
The new line of attack came on a day when Mr. Romney escalated his own criticism of Mr. Obama's stewardship of the economy, visiting Solyndra, the California solar-panel company that went bankrupt after receiving more than a half-billion dollars in federal loan guarantees.
Central to Mr. Obama's case is that Massachusetts ranked 47 out of the 50 states in job creation during Mr. Romney's tenure as governor, from 2003-2007, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In the four years before Mr. Romney took office, Massachusetts ranked 35th, and in the four years after he left, the state improved to 11th, according to calculations bythe nonpartisan Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation.
The Obama campaign laid out its case in a news conference and Web video. Mr. Romney, campaigning in California, replied that the unemployment rate in Massachusetts fell during his tenure to 4.7%, from 5.6%.
"I think 4.7%'s a pretty good number," Mr. Romney said. "My guess is the people of America would be very pleased if they could see a number like 4.7%." The national unemployment rate last month was 8.1%.
The unemployment rate in Massachusetts was a bit better than the national rate when Mr. Romney took office, but a little worse when he left.
Mr. Obama's focus on the Massachusetts economy is an effort to go on offense on a subject where he is most vulnerable, the tepid growth of the national economy under his presidency. The health of the U.S. economy will be in the spotlight again Friday, when the government reports monthly jobs numbers following two months of disappointing job creation.
Several economists based in Massachusetts said the data reflect the state's struggling economy after the burst of the late-'90s Internet-driven bubble, which hit Massachusetts hard. They say Mr. Romney neither hindered nor particularly boosted the state's economic fortunes and that as the nation as a whole recovered from recession, Massachusetts grew, but slowly.
Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, which advocates for what it describes as the efficient use of tax dollars, faulted Mr. Romney for not following up on a promise to develop a strategic economic plan, and for not living up to promises to attract businesses to the state. He said an increase in corporate taxes imposed to balance the budget—which Mr. Romney called closing loopholes—may have made the state less attractive to business.
But he lauded the Romney administration for focusing on preserving existing jobs in the state, what he called "invisible" work that made a big difference.
"I don't think there's any sugar coating that job creation performance during those four years was inadequate," said Michael D. Goodman, an economic sociologist at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, who edits a journal about the Massachusetts economy. "I quibble with the notion that a governor is responsible for that."
Still, he said, Mr. Romney argued as a candidate that he could do a better job of attracting business to the state. "I'm not aware of any evidence that this was the result," he said.
Fred Bayles, director of Boston University's State House program, which covers Massachusetts government and politics for newspapers and radio stations around the state, called Mr. Romney's economic record "particularly unremarkable."
On the campaign trail, the day unfolded with dueling news conferences by the Mr. Romney and the Obama camp.
"After selling himself to Massachusetts as an economic savior, the Massachusetts record was alarmingly weak," Obama senior strategist David Axelrod said at a news conference in Boston, staged in front of the Massachusetts State House.
Mr. Axelrod's news conference was dogged by heckling from a crowd of Romney supporters, who chanted slogans as Mr. Axelrod and other speakers strained to be heard. Several of the hecklers said they were volunteers with the Romney campaign.
Mr. Romney launched his own attack on Mr. Obama's economic record with his visit to Solyndra, in Fremont, Calif. The solar-panel firm filed for bankruptcy protection in September after receiving $535 milllion in government loan guarantees. Mr. Romney has seized on it as an example of the president's meddling in the private sector and picking winners and losers.
"Free enterprise to the president means taking money from the taxpayers and giving it freely to his friends," Mr. Romney said. He called the operation a failure and criticized the company's headquarters as particularly opulent.
The new line of attack from the Obama campaign followed a prolonged attack on Mr. Romney's tenure atop private-equity firm Bain Capital. Mr. Obama argued Bain was concerned with creating profits but not jobs, and his campaign pointed to businesses that failed and workers who were laid off.
—Mark Maremont contributed to this article.Write to Laura Meckler at [email protected] and Sara Murray at [email protected]