His presidential nomination officially in hand, Republican Mitt Romney scrapped part of his campaign schedule and instead toured hurricane-damaged parts of Louisiana.
Romney this afternoon joined Bobby Jindal, the state’s Republican governor, on a visit to an area outside New Orleans that was flooded by Hurricane Isaac, which is to include meeting with emergency and relief workers. As they started off in Jean Lafitte, Louisiana, Romney told Jindal he was “here to learn, and obviously draw some attention” to the storm’s aftermath.
President Barack Obama, who is to address military personnel today at Fort Bliss, Texas, plans to stop in Louisiana on Sept. 3, said Jay Carney, his spokesman.
Romney made his trip after last night’s close of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, where he formally accepted the party’s nod with a speech that made a direct appeal to voters disaffected with Obama and aimed at countering Democratic accusations that he’s out of touch with the lives of most Americans.
Romney and his running mate, Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, had been scheduled to jointly attend a rally in Richmond, Virginia. Ryan ended up headlining the event on his own.
[h=2]Condensed Convention[/h]Hurricane Isaac made landfall in southeast Louisiana and its impact was felt along the Gulf of Mexico coast, including Tampa, where Republicans condensed their national convention to three days from four. The storm briefly threatened to drown out Romney’s message and derail his celebration with the threat it would deal a crushing blow to New Orleans reminiscent of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
The storm never gained Katrina’s strength when it reached the coast Aug. 28, allowing Republicans to keep the spotlight on Romney.
In his acceptance speech, Romney sought to identify with the dreams and disappointments of U.S. voters amid unemployment that’s stuck above 8 percent, presenting himself as a unifying figure with the expertise to create jobs and heal partisan rifts. He tailored part of his remarks to win the votes of women with stories of how his mother and wife had shaped his life, saying their struggles were often harder than those faced by men and that he would be a president who “understands what they do.”
Romney used personal details, including an allusion to his Mormon faith, to offer himself as an alternative to Obama.
[h=2]‘Simple Question’[/h]“‘Hope and change’ had a powerful appeal,” Romney, the 65-year-old former Massachusetts governor, said, invoking Obama’s 2008 campaign slogan. “But tonight I’d ask a simple question: If you felt that excitement when you voted for Barack Obama, shouldn’t you feel that way now that he’s President Obama?”
“You know there’s something wrong with the kind of job he’s done as president when the best feeling you had was the day you voted for him,” he added.
Tobe Berkovitz, a professor of communication at Boston University, said Romney’s acceptance speech “was as good as you can get from Romney. Solid and thematic. Several winner lines attacking Obama, none of which came across as mean.”
[h=2]‘Wrong Speech’[/h]Stephen Hess, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, said it was “exactly the wrong speech. It was a ‘who am I,’ when what the electorate needed from him was a ‘what I will do,’” address.
It also was a departure from Romney’s prior campaign strategy, which was to frame the election as a referendum on the incumbent’s record. Instead, he is setting up a choice between opposite approaches. That’s a calculated risk for Romney as he begins the final two-month sprint toward Election Day on Nov. 6.
At its heart is a bet that voters’ economic strain and dashed expectations of Obama’s presidency will prompt them to embrace Romney’s plan for scaling back the size of government and energizing the private sector through trillions of dollars in new tax cuts.
“I wish President Obama had succeeded because I want America to succeed,” Romney said. “But his promises gave way to disappointment and division.”
Romney has yet to provide many details of his fiscal plans. He began to address that omission by saying voters are entitled to a clearer picture of his background and his proposals.
“To make that choice, you need to know more about me and about where I will lead our country,” Romney said.
[h=2]Economic Troubles[/h]Romney’s approach opens him to criticism by Democrats, who argue his proposals will worsen the nation’s economic troubles and conditions for the most vulnerable in society.
Jim Messina, Obama’s campaign manager, said Romney’s proposals “would take our country backwards,” through tax cuts for the wealthy financed by the middle class, shifting Medicare to a “voucher program,” and a “rollback of Wall Street reforms.”
With Romney and Obama in a tight contest as the Labor Day kickoff of the final stages of the campaign approaches, the president’s re-election team made point-by-point rebuttals of his every assertion, distributing them to the media as Romney spoke.
The candidate’s wife, Ann Romney, said her husband left the convention hall believing he had accomplished his mission.
[h=2]‘Great Job’[/h]“I knew he’d done a great job, and I think Mitt was pretty confident,” Ann Romney said today in an interview on CNN. “He felt very good about his speech.”
The speech marked a milestone for Romney, the former private equity executive who ran unsuccessfully in his party’s primary in 2008 and battled through a crowded and divisive primary this year to claim the Republican nomination. Now Romney must capitalize on Republicans’ animosity toward Obama and stoke the enthusiasm of a party that has been slow to warm to him -- all while reaching out to such undecided voters as women, Hispanics and young people in key states.
Romney, working to show a more human side, choked up as he spoke about his days raising five young sons with his wife, Ann, and referred to his Mormon faith and the role of his church in his life. He did not -- as aides had suggested he would -- speak specifically of serving as a bishop in Massachusetts.
Romney received a warm reception and several standing ovations during the speech, including when he vowed to cut the deficit, balance the budget and repeal the 2010 health-care law. Still, some delegates said he must do more if he is to win in November.
[h=2]Delegate Reaction[/h]“I was hoping he’d provide the excitement that will carry into November,” said Joyce Cotten, a delegate from Pittsboro, North Carolina. “I see a lot of positives. Is it complete? No. He’s not yet convinced a majority of the American people that he can, in fact, do it.”
Romney filled in biographical details some supporters said raised their comfort level and could appeal to those tuning in to the presidential race.
“It reassured me,” Nicole Montna Van Vleck, managing partner of a Yuba City, California rice farm, said of the speech. “We needed the nation to know who Mitt Romney is, and he accomplished that.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Julie Hirschfeld Davis in Jean LaFitte, Louisiana, Florida, at
[email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jeanne Cummings at [email protected]
Romney this afternoon joined Bobby Jindal, the state’s Republican governor, on a visit to an area outside New Orleans that was flooded by Hurricane Isaac, which is to include meeting with emergency and relief workers. As they started off in Jean Lafitte, Louisiana, Romney told Jindal he was “here to learn, and obviously draw some attention” to the storm’s aftermath.
President Barack Obama, who is to address military personnel today at Fort Bliss, Texas, plans to stop in Louisiana on Sept. 3, said Jay Carney, his spokesman.
Romney made his trip after last night’s close of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, where he formally accepted the party’s nod with a speech that made a direct appeal to voters disaffected with Obama and aimed at countering Democratic accusations that he’s out of touch with the lives of most Americans.
Romney and his running mate, Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, had been scheduled to jointly attend a rally in Richmond, Virginia. Ryan ended up headlining the event on his own.
[h=2]Condensed Convention[/h]Hurricane Isaac made landfall in southeast Louisiana and its impact was felt along the Gulf of Mexico coast, including Tampa, where Republicans condensed their national convention to three days from four. The storm briefly threatened to drown out Romney’s message and derail his celebration with the threat it would deal a crushing blow to New Orleans reminiscent of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
The storm never gained Katrina’s strength when it reached the coast Aug. 28, allowing Republicans to keep the spotlight on Romney.
In his acceptance speech, Romney sought to identify with the dreams and disappointments of U.S. voters amid unemployment that’s stuck above 8 percent, presenting himself as a unifying figure with the expertise to create jobs and heal partisan rifts. He tailored part of his remarks to win the votes of women with stories of how his mother and wife had shaped his life, saying their struggles were often harder than those faced by men and that he would be a president who “understands what they do.”
Romney used personal details, including an allusion to his Mormon faith, to offer himself as an alternative to Obama.
[h=2]‘Simple Question’[/h]“‘Hope and change’ had a powerful appeal,” Romney, the 65-year-old former Massachusetts governor, said, invoking Obama’s 2008 campaign slogan. “But tonight I’d ask a simple question: If you felt that excitement when you voted for Barack Obama, shouldn’t you feel that way now that he’s President Obama?”
“You know there’s something wrong with the kind of job he’s done as president when the best feeling you had was the day you voted for him,” he added.
Tobe Berkovitz, a professor of communication at Boston University, said Romney’s acceptance speech “was as good as you can get from Romney. Solid and thematic. Several winner lines attacking Obama, none of which came across as mean.”
[h=2]‘Wrong Speech’[/h]Stephen Hess, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, said it was “exactly the wrong speech. It was a ‘who am I,’ when what the electorate needed from him was a ‘what I will do,’” address.
It also was a departure from Romney’s prior campaign strategy, which was to frame the election as a referendum on the incumbent’s record. Instead, he is setting up a choice between opposite approaches. That’s a calculated risk for Romney as he begins the final two-month sprint toward Election Day on Nov. 6.
At its heart is a bet that voters’ economic strain and dashed expectations of Obama’s presidency will prompt them to embrace Romney’s plan for scaling back the size of government and energizing the private sector through trillions of dollars in new tax cuts.
“I wish President Obama had succeeded because I want America to succeed,” Romney said. “But his promises gave way to disappointment and division.”
Romney has yet to provide many details of his fiscal plans. He began to address that omission by saying voters are entitled to a clearer picture of his background and his proposals.
“To make that choice, you need to know more about me and about where I will lead our country,” Romney said.
[h=2]Economic Troubles[/h]Romney’s approach opens him to criticism by Democrats, who argue his proposals will worsen the nation’s economic troubles and conditions for the most vulnerable in society.
Jim Messina, Obama’s campaign manager, said Romney’s proposals “would take our country backwards,” through tax cuts for the wealthy financed by the middle class, shifting Medicare to a “voucher program,” and a “rollback of Wall Street reforms.”
With Romney and Obama in a tight contest as the Labor Day kickoff of the final stages of the campaign approaches, the president’s re-election team made point-by-point rebuttals of his every assertion, distributing them to the media as Romney spoke.
The candidate’s wife, Ann Romney, said her husband left the convention hall believing he had accomplished his mission.
[h=2]‘Great Job’[/h]“I knew he’d done a great job, and I think Mitt was pretty confident,” Ann Romney said today in an interview on CNN. “He felt very good about his speech.”
The speech marked a milestone for Romney, the former private equity executive who ran unsuccessfully in his party’s primary in 2008 and battled through a crowded and divisive primary this year to claim the Republican nomination. Now Romney must capitalize on Republicans’ animosity toward Obama and stoke the enthusiasm of a party that has been slow to warm to him -- all while reaching out to such undecided voters as women, Hispanics and young people in key states.
Romney, working to show a more human side, choked up as he spoke about his days raising five young sons with his wife, Ann, and referred to his Mormon faith and the role of his church in his life. He did not -- as aides had suggested he would -- speak specifically of serving as a bishop in Massachusetts.
Romney received a warm reception and several standing ovations during the speech, including when he vowed to cut the deficit, balance the budget and repeal the 2010 health-care law. Still, some delegates said he must do more if he is to win in November.
[h=2]Delegate Reaction[/h]“I was hoping he’d provide the excitement that will carry into November,” said Joyce Cotten, a delegate from Pittsboro, North Carolina. “I see a lot of positives. Is it complete? No. He’s not yet convinced a majority of the American people that he can, in fact, do it.”
Romney filled in biographical details some supporters said raised their comfort level and could appeal to those tuning in to the presidential race.
“It reassured me,” Nicole Montna Van Vleck, managing partner of a Yuba City, California rice farm, said of the speech. “We needed the nation to know who Mitt Romney is, and he accomplished that.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Julie Hirschfeld Davis in Jean LaFitte, Louisiana, Florida, at
[email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jeanne Cummings at [email protected]