Mitt Romney - A Better America Starts Tonight

Mitt Romney made a clean sweep of the Republican primaries in New York, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Rhode Island.  His sweep should erase any doubt that he will be the Republican nominee to face President Obama.  In his most compelling speech to date, he talked directly to the American people and promised "A better America starts tonight."

“To all of the thousands of good and decent Americans I’ve met who want nothing more than a better chance, a fighting chance, to all of you I have a simple message.  Hold on a little longer. A better America begins tonight.  Because he has failed, he will run a campaign of diversions and distractions and distortions. That kind of campaign may have worked at another place and in a different time — but not here and not now.  It’s still about the economy, and we’re not stupid.”

"Everywhere I go, Americans are tired of being tired, and many of those who are fortunate enough to have a job are working harder for less," he said.

President Obama and the Democratic Party have run a very divisive campaign, pitching the rich against the poor, creating a war on women, particularly during Rick Santorum's campaign and promising lower college tuition to college students.  His "We Can't Wait" campaign tried to influence the American public to pressure Congress.  What seems never to be mentioned in an Obama campaign message is that  the President had total control of Congress for the first two years of his presidency.  One has to ask when all these issues became important.  Even some dissenting Democrats profess that Obama lacked leadership during his first two years, letting Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi direct the writing of the "Affordable Health Care Act."  Obama now seems to want to fix all those priorities of his 2008 campaign in the last four months in office.  

Unemployment is still above 8%, despite the stimulus, prices at the pumps are out of control.  Tons of money have been wasted in investments to failing green energy companies and the Keystone XL pipeline has been rejected for political reasons to satisfy Obama's green base.  The number of people on food stamps has increased significantly under the President's watch.  Americans are tired of hearing that it is all George W. Bush's fault. 

The Obama campaign challenged Romney's speech with the same old song about Republicans:

“The title for Governor Romney’s speech tonight should have been ‘Back to the Future,’ because he has proposed a return to the same policies that got us into the economic crisis in the first place.  The spokesman argued that the a choice between two candidates, two records, and two visions for the country, he argued Romney “would stack the deck against the middle class, pull the rug out from under growing sectors of our economy like manufacturing and clean energy and promote giveaways to Americans who can afford to lobby for them.”

 

This is the same politics of division rather than defending Obama's record, whose policies have done little to change the economic situation. 

 

The 2012 general election will be a close race and it is Romney's if he can keep his message positive and focused on the economy.  The side issues have done little to help the GOP effort and Romney rightly focused it on the Obama's record and the economy.  Yes it certainly is still the economy and we're not stupid.