Mitt Romney launched his campaign for president Thursday with a pledge to “bring this country back.”
With that statement, I’m not sure if he means to take the country back to the brink of financial meltdown, where Pres. Bush left it, or back to the failed policies of going to war with a country that never attacked us. It wasn’t clear.
“Turning around a crisis takes experience and bold action,” Romney said. “For millions of Americans, the economy is in crisis today. Unless we change course, it’ll be a crisis for all of us tomorrow.”
Romney blasted President Barack Obama for his handling of the economic downturn. Of course, the facts are the stock market has almost doubled since President Obama took office. The auto industry was on the verge of collapse; but after paying back almost all the government loans used to save the industry and hundreds of jobs, the auto industry is beginning to post gains again. And the tax burden for Americans is the lower than it was under Reagan, over 20 years ago.
Touting his experience as a private equity executive, leader of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics and governor of Massachusetts, Romney said he’d use his campaign to stick up for the free market and the American dream.
“The American ideals of economic freedom and opportunity need a clear and unapologetic defense,” Romney said. “I intend to make it, because I have lived it.”
Romney enters the race as a frontrunner nationally and in New Hampshire. He has consistently led the polls in this crucial first primary state, where he is focusing his efforts.
Romney addressed a large, though often subdued crowd at the Stratham farm of Doug and Stella Scamman, two longtime GOP fixtures in the Granite State.
