GREENCASTLE, Pa. — Mitt Romney is known as a man with millions of dollars, but he wants Americans to know that his grandfather wasn’t one.
“My dad’s dad went broke more than once,” the former Massachusetts governor told 200 or so people who had gathered Sunday for the local Lincoln Day dinner in this southern Pennsylvania community. “And my dad learned lessons about the importance of family and of faith and had a great and abiding affection for this country — lessons he taught me.”
The brief biography was a not-so-subtle rejoinder to a claim Democratic President Barack Obama made last week. “I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth,” Obama said — a line his spokesman later said wasn’t aimed at his presumptive Republican opponent.
In his Sunday speech, Romney first mentioned his wife, Ann Romney, as “the source of my experience and qualification.” Then he added: “And also my parents. I had the extraordinary privilege of being born in America . and I had a mom and a dad and they taught me lasting values.”
Another of Prescott Bush’s grandsons, former President George W. Bush, has withheld his endorsement while the nomination campaign remains active.
Today, Mitt Romney will campaign outside Pittsburgh with former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, before holding a townhall meeting outside Philadelphia with US Senator Marco Rubio. The Florida Republican has been mentioned as a potential Romney running mate.
Speaking in New Hampshire will allow Romney to address supporters in the state where he started down his victorious nomination drive by winning his first contest. He is backed by former Governor John H. Sununu and US Senator Kelly Ayotte, another potential running mate.
It will also provide him a broader stage to pivot his campaign from an inward-looking party primary battle to an outward-looking general election confrontation with the Democrats.
Romney started that process in earnest on Friday, when he visited Arizona for a meeting of state Republican Party leaders and also for a roundtable with Hispanics and a general campaign rally.
Addressing the party’s state chairmen, Romney named each of his eight vanquished rivals - while acknowledging Gingrich and Paul are still running - and lauded them for having had “the courage to run for president on our side of the aisle this year.”
He added: “Each of them campaigned in an aggressive and dynamic way to spread our message of conservatism.”
Romney, who was introduced by the party’s 2008 presidential nominee, Senator John McCain, then turned to Obama.
“I don’t believe in an economic system run by government and controlled by government,” Romney said. “I will return to America the principles of free enterprise and economic freedom that drove us to be the most powerful economy in the world.”
No comments:
Post a Comment