Romney in 08 Elections Likes to Focus On Economy

"I know how America works because I spent my life in the real economy," says the man who made millions as a venture capitalist. "My plan will make America strong."

With recession fears growing, Mitt Romney's latest television ad is part resume, part resolve. And all reassurance.

The ad is the most visible element of Romney's strategy for the final week of the Florida primary. After a series of early campaign setbacks and one notable triumph, the former Massachusetts governor and aides have concluded that even in a state with relatively low unemployment, economic anxiety is his best hope for a victory that could finally set him on a path to the nomination.

"I won't need a briefing on how the economy works. I've been there. I know how the economy works," he told an audience on Wednesday to applause.

No mention of John McCain, Rudy Giuliani or Mike Huckabee, Republican presidential rivals whose campaign credentials lean heavily on government service. The point is unmistakable, all the same.

Not surprisingly, his Republican rivals are loath to let his claim go unchallenged.

"Of all the people running for president of the United States, I've had the most experience in turning around a government and turning around an economy," Giuliani said earlier this week. "I actually accomplished that in New York City," the former mayor added.

McCain's aides recently circulated a one-page compilation of reports, many from the media, that said Massachusetts state spending rose sharply and economic growth lagged during Romney's four years as governor. One recalled his refusal to take a position on President Bush's tax cuts in 2003.

On Saturday, he issued an economic stimulus plan totaling $233 billion, half again as big as anything President Bush and congressional leaders had been discussing.

Whatever his earlier position on tax cuts, Romney now preaches their virtue.

Its centerpiece is tax breaks for businesses investing in new equipment, an essential element, he says, for the creation of jobs.

It also included an individual income tax rebate of $400 to get money into the economy quickly, as well as a permanent reduction in the current 10 percent income tax bracket to 7.5 percent, designed for longer-term economic growth.

Under his plan, millions of lower-paid workers who pay payroll taxes but no income tax would not receive rebates. "I don't give it to people who don't pay taxes," he told one audience, which applauded in return. Aides also cited studies they said cast doubt on whether lower-income workers had used earlier rebates to stimulate the economy by purchasing consumer goods.

Romney's decision to emphasize his business background comes at a pivotal point in the battle for the nomination. Many conservatives have never warmed to him, wary of his previous support for abortion rights and gay rights. Huckabee's rise in Iowa and McCain's New Hampshire comeback made Romney odd-man out in the first two events of the year.

He rebounded smartly with a victory in the Michigan primary, where he campaigned on a promise to try and bring back the thousands of auto industry jobs that have been lost in recent years.

A Michigan native, he also stressed his personal ties to a struggling state with the highest unemployment in the country.

Without the same economic-based appeal, but without the personal connection, he stumbled the following week in high-unemployment South Carolina, where McCain won and Huckabee came in second.

"I do believe that among our citizens there's a growing concern about our economy as they see the dollar slide, the stock market slide," he said recently before listing more common concerns such as mortgage foreclosures and job losses.

And on Tuesday, as the markets braced for a sell-off that would send stock prices plummeting, he mixed in some professional investment advice. "If I were at home I'd be calling my broker and looking for opportunities to buy," he said.

Now Florida looms as the final single-state test before the campaign goes national with more than 20 primaries and caucuses on Feb. 5. With former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson out of the race, Huckabee out of money and Giuliani in desperate need of a victory, the winnowing process is under way.

Ironically, Florida presents Romney with a personal business decision to make.

He has poured $35 million or more of his own funds into the race. While he has outspent his rivals on television in Florida, until Wednesday he had not advertised in Miami, the state's most expensive media market. According to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, aides have urged him to do so, and in recent days asked him to commit another $400,000 or so from his personal funds to finance the effort.

Instead, Romney's aides produced a new campaign backdrop within hours after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates and the stock market plunged on fears of recession.

"Economic Turnaround," it read.

Romney warns of Market Troubles in 08

The former Massachusetts governor, who made a fortune as a venture capitalist before entering politics, said he saw a worrying trend in growing numbers of U.S. banks seeking capital offshore following a blowout in sub-prime mortgages.

On Tuesday, Romney said U.S. markets were distressed and raised the possibility of a solvency crisis at U.S. banks

"We have to make sure these institutions have sufficient capital," Romney told Reuters after a speech to Florida's Republican Jewish Coalition, describing the U.S. stock market as "distressed" after a plunge in global stock prices.

He stopped short of predicting some banks would face the risk of insolvency. But in a speech earlier to Florida's Jewish Republican community he said he had been warned of such a crisis.

"We were talking about the credit crisis and how bad the credit crisis was and how to make sure the credit crunch is not spread, and someone sent a message back that said the credit crisis is so 2007 -- 2008 is a solvency crisis," he said.

"And that's obviously a very fearful perspective and hopefully one that does not rear its ugly head in reality. But people are talking about institutions having difficulty maintaining their level of capital," he added.

Stocks tumbled at the open on Tuesday, joining a global equity rout on fears of a U.S. recession. Investors dumped stocks despite the Federal Reserve's slashing benchmark interest rates by 75 basis points in a surprise decision.

Romney is in a close four-way race in Florida where the primary on January 29 is the next test in the state-by-state battles to determine the Republican and Democratic candidates who will square off in November's presidential election.

The multimillionaire former venture capitalist has retooled his campaign to emphasize his nearly 25 years of business experience that includes founding Bain Capital LLC, a successful Boston-based private-equity firm, in 1984.

*Reporting by Jason Szep, editing by Lori Santos

Nevada Embraces Romney in 08 Primary

“Today, the people of Nevada voted for change in Washington. For far too long, our leaders have promised to take the action necessary to build a stronger America, and still the people of Nevada and all across this country are waiting,” Romney said in a statement. “Whether it is reforming health care, making America energy independent or securing the border, the American people have been promised much and are now ready for change.”

Following up on his win in Michigan and backed by a sizeable Mormon population, former Gov. Mitt Romney was projected to notch another victory in the Nevada caucuses Saturday, adding to his growing pile of delegates in the changing Republican race for the party’s presidential nomination.

The victory was widely expected and the Associated Press moved quickly to declare Romney the victor even before the first precincts reported. Long-shot Libertarian candidate Rep Ron Paul of Texas was the only other GOP candidate to mount a serious effort in the state.

As the Republican campaigns continue with different candidates scoring victories in different state contests, some analysts have started to say the campaigns should start focusing on the math of the delegate count — a fact Romney was quick to point out even ahead of Saturday’s vote.

“There are 24 delegates in South Carolina, and there are 34 delegates in Nevada,” Romney told reporters Thursday. “I want delegates, and I’m pleased that I’ve been able to get delegates. The fact that I came in second in a couple of primaries — I know some people think that’s a devastating thing — actually, I got delegates. And I’m looking to rack up the delegates I need to win the nomination.”

As he crisscrossed the state on Friday, Romney stressed his campaign theme of traditional politics failing to help ordinary voters.

“As you think about the promises made and compare them with the promises delivered, you realize that Washington is broken. And I’m going to Washington to finally bring change and get the job done,” Romney told about 200 people in snow-covered Elko, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal.

Turnout, which had been doubted during the chaotic days ahead of the vote, appeared to be heavy and forced a 45-minute delay at some sites, according to the GOP officials.

“I can’t believe how many showed up,” Marilyn Brainard told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

One of the cornerstones of Romney’s Nevada victory appeared to be Mormons, who went nearly 90 percent for the former Massachusetts governor.

“They are very powerful here,” David F. Damore, a professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, told The New York Times. “Normally you see this antagonism between the Christian right and Mormons. You don’t see that here.”

Mormons, according to projections, made up nearly 20 percent of the voters in Saturday’s contests.

But beyond their faith, Nevada voters cited the economy and illegal immigration as the overwhelming issues behind their voting. The issues largely paralleled what NewsHour reporters found during a week-long series of reports from Las Vegas in November.

Romney in 08: Running on Family

Maybe Mitt, like GW. Bush, is just a big Daddy's Boy. He's run his campaign, much as Bush has run his presidency, as though the only thing he had to learn from his father were negative lessons. GW. thought his father hadn't pushed hard enough on Iraq and didn't get mean enough to win re-election and a little off base to raise taxes. He was determined to not make those mistakes. Mitt saw his father labeled as a weirdo when he sought the '68 nomination and, at a time when he was a favorite for the nomination, told a Television station, "When I came back from Vietnam, I'd just had the greatest brainwashing that anybody can get," and that he no longer supported the war.

In his surpassingly disingenuous campaign for president, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has borne only the most superficial resemblance to his father, the late and former governor of Michigan, but starkly different political trajectories. Although he didn't actually march with Martin Luther King, George Romney was the kind of old-style Republican who strongly backed civil rights, became an opponent of Vietnam, and got axed as Nixon's HUD Secretary.

Mitt's campaign has run in the opposite direction: hard right. But until Michigan, his archconservative makeover -- from the fellow who promised to out-gay Teddy Kennedy to the terror-warrior growling about doubling the size of Guantánamo -- hadn't been convincing enough to help him carry a primary. But Romney managed to convert his familiar name into a victory tonight that (at least temporarily) saved his candidacy -- and plunged the already muddled GOP race into a kind of beautiful chaos.

Beautiful, that is, for Democrats.

The oddest thing about Romney's win is that it came in a state in economic crisis -- a place that you'd have expected to overwhelmingly reject a man who made millions as a downsizing consultant. You'd also have expected former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who pushed his economic populism here harder than his Christian Dominionism, to fare better. But there is no explaining Republican voters this year. Not even to themselves.

Huckabee's "Christian Leader" campaign in Iowa, while it worked for the unusually conservative evangelical Republicans there, undoubtedly made most of the independents and evangelical Democrats who might have listened to his economic message in Michigan tune him out for good. And when he starts talking out of the other side of his mouth -- like John Edwards holding forth on "the Two Americas" -- as he did in Michigan, Huckabee clearly confuses a lot of evangelical Republicans as well. He's echoing what many of them have told pollsters for years -- that they're a lot less conservative on economic issues than on the moral wedges -- but it's still a drastically new message, and thus a bit suspicious-sounding. Huckabee's more pragmatic problem in Michigan, of course, was that he couldn't match Romney's months of organizing and advertising, or John McCain's familiarity with the folk he wooed successfully in 2000.