Mitt Romney stuck to his script of turning back the clock on
the Obama Administration's economic policies during a town hall meeting
Tuesday in his quest to make sure his native state ends with a Romney victory
next week.
March primary election: precinct, ballot information
Mr. Romney declared his determination to cap spending and balance the
budget and said he is more fiscally conservative than rival Rick Santorum
during a morning event at Eagle Manufacturing Corp. in Shelby Township. He
spent most of his time trying to draw the contrasts between himself and
President Obama.
He said Michigan is making a recovery, "but it's no thanks to the
President." He said President Obama's solutions are more taxes, more spending,
and more regulations.
"He said he would keep the unemployment rate below 8 percent if he could
borrow $787 billion and have your kids pay it back," Mr. Romney said. "It has
not been below 8 percent since. ... This is a president who has not kept those
promises."
Mr. Romney, the son of a former Michigan governor and himself the former
governor of Massachusetts, had the state to himself Tuesday while Mr.
Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, stumped for votes in Arizona, where
the primary election is also Feb. 28.
Since the weekend, Mr. Santorum has dominated the news with his attacks
on Mr. Obama's "radical" environmental policies and description of the
President's world view as a "phony theology." Democrats claimed he was
questioning the President's Christian faith.
Mr. Romney won the 2008 Michigan primary by 9 percentage points, and a
defeat there would cast a pall over his campaign for the Super Tuesday round
of primaries -- including Ohio -- that takes place on March 6.
The Michigan election is one week away, and Mr. Romney is seeking to
reclaim the lead by winning in the state where he was born and raised.
"Macomb County was always very good to my dad. Whether it was Polish or
Italian, this has been a community that's always been great to the Romney
family," he said.
He was introduced to the crowd of several hundred by Bill Schuette, the
state attorney general, who called him a "scrappy underdog."
"This is a jobs and paychecks election and Mitt Romney is the jobs and
paychecks candidate," Mr. Schuette said. "We are closing really fast. That's
why Mitt Romney is the comeback kid."
Mr. Romney, in response to a question, tried to settle the issue that has
dogged him from the beginning -- his opposition to the 2009 bailout of General
Motors and Chrysler. He said General Motors ended up going through a managed
bankruptcy -- just as he prescribed in a 2008 New York Times column headlined
"Let Detroit Go Bankrupt."
"I love the auto industry. I'm delighted to see it's coming back," Mr.
Romney said. "By the way, it's a good thing it went through the managed
bankruptcy I said it needed to go through."
He said unions perform an important function, and he cited carpenters'
unions that train new members.
"This President doesn't just look at the workers in a union. He's saluted
to the union bosses, and the union bosses, too often, demand things that are
not right for America," Mr. Romney said.
Mark Brewer, the Michigan Democratic Party chairman, accused Mr. Romney
Tuesday of trying to "rewrite history and rewrite his own record about jobs.
"He'll continue to say he called for a 'managed bankruptcy' and claim
that is exactly what ended up happening. He hopes we'll all forget what the
financial market was like in December, 2008, and January, 2009: the credit
markets weren't just tight, they were absolutely frozen," Mr. Brewer said.
Mr. Romney again said he favors right-to-work legislation.
Mr. Romney got his biggest applause line with an ad-lib about Canadian
government health care. A Canadian man who was asking a question mentioned he
had been unable to make a contribution to Mr. Romney on his credit card, and
then added, "you can't have my health card."
"I don't want it," Mr. Romney said in a drawn-out deadpan.
Mr. Romney mentioned Mr. Santorum only when prompted by a questioner who
asked how he was going to get out the word that "Santorum is nothing but a
Washington insider."
"Senator Santorum is now being seen for the first time in many homes,"
Mr. Romney said. "I don't think Rick Santorum's track record is that of a
fiscal conservative."
In response to a question, he assured listeners that he was against
abortion, citing a Massachusetts embryonic stem-cell research bill he vetoed.
"I will cut off funding to Planned Parenthood, reinstate the Mexico City
policy, make sure we appoint justices [to the Supreme Court] who follow the
Constitution," Mr. Romney said. President Obama in 2009 ended the ban, known
as the Mexico City Policy, on federal funding of groups that promoted abortion
for family planning.
A Public Policy Polling survey done in Michigan at the end of last week
showed Mr. Santorum with a four-point lead on Mr. Romney in Michigan. But a
newer poll by Mitchell/Rosetta Stone showed Mr. Romney ahead by two points.
Both polls were reported by www.realclearpolitics.com.
The township in Macomb County about 25 miles north of Detroit is a magnet
for presidential candidates. Mr. Santorum spoke to a crowd near the same
location on Friday.
Macomb County was known in the 1980s for its Reagan Democrats -- union
voters with conservative social values. The description may no longer apply.
Mr. Obama carried the county over Republican John McCain by 223,784 to
187,663.
