Rod Boshart, CR Gazette –
DES MOINES – GOP president candidate Mitt Romney told cheering Iowa supporters Sunday he’s counting on them to help punch his ticket to the White House on Tuesday.
“I need your vote, I need your work, I need your help,” Romney told about 4,500 enthusiastic Iowans who turned out at Hy-Vee Hall for a Sunday morning campaign rally that featured the Oak Ridge Boys as a warm-up act. “I need Iowa.. I need Iowa so we can win the White House and take back America. I’m counting on you. Will you get the job done?”
Romney hammered familiar themes in promising to chart a new direction for the country that gets Americans back to work, improves their economic plight, “tames” growth in government, and bolsters America’s international position. He said he would change direction by promoting bipartisan change that President Obama promised four years ago but never delivered.
“With the right leadership, America can come roaring back,” Romney said in making his closing argument in one of the key swing states that could decide Tuesday’s election outcome.
“The only thing that stands between us and the best years we’ve ever had is new leadership,” the former Massachusetts governor said over crowd chants of “two more days.”
“We can do better. A stronger America is ahead,” Romney said. “Our destiny is in the hands of the people.”
Romney took aim at Obama – who will finish his 2012 campaign with a Monday evening rally at the site of his 2008 Iowa campaign headquarters – saying the president is trying to convince Americans that the last four years have been a success even though 9 million people are without jobs and the economy is not recovering like the president promised. The GOP challenger said he would bring change “from day one” and would not spend his time blaming his predecessor for his lack of progress.
Obama is seeking re-election of the “Forward” banner, but Romney said “I call it forewarned.”
“You measure change in achievements,” Romney added. “His record is very different from his words,” Romney said, pointing to higher health care costs, higher gasoline prices and lower take home pay as vestiges of the president’s White House term.
“From day one, I’m going to go to work to get people back to work,” he said. “I’m not only going to take office Jan. 20, I’m going to take responsibility for the office as well.”
Romney’s running mate, Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, is slated to make a final stop in Des Moines on Monday afternoon – a few hours before Obama, his wife, Michelle, and rocker Bruce Springsteen wrap up their campaign at a Monday evening rally.
In what could be his last direct message to Iowa voters, Romney urged Iowans to convince as many people as they can to cast their votes for the Romney-Ryan ticket on Tuesday.
“This is a campaign about America and the future we’re going to leave our children,” he said. “We urge you to stay with it all the way to our victory Tuesday night.”
Obama is a bumbling idiot who has failed at everything except turning our nation into a lazy bunch of freeloaders looking to prey off those who work. Who do you think is going to invest in the new factories Obamas hand it to me clan or Romneys people who have made money from working. Romney Ryan 2013
Well, let’s see, we’ve got 4 dead Americans in Benghazi. A mess on the eastern shore. Associated with known Communists. A trillion dollars further in debt each year he is in office with no end in sight.
And what does he do about the first two things I listed…he runs off to Las Vegas to campaign in the first case…and runs everywhere to campaign in the second place.
Wow, this is the kind of person you want running the country for four more years?
And the people he has running around pushing his run for a second term… Bill Clinton the “it depends on what is, is” expert who just yesterday said, …”the military now is less homophobic, less racist and less sexist” which for those from Rio Linda means, they still are but “less” than before.
FYI – President Obama called off his campaigning to stay in Washington and take care of what needed to be taken care of during Hurricane Sandy. I don’t know where you get your information, but it is wrong.
I watched a documentary on Romney the other night. It was supposedly unbiased. The same producer/director made a documentary on Obama that aired the same night. I really did try to watch with an open mind.
Romney seems to be a good enough person. Very smart, and attractive, but he just isn’t likable! I had a hard time even looking at him. He comes across as such a phony who cares nothing about the common American. He doesn’t seem at all comfortable in the public eye. He stands there like a statue and hardly ever changes his facial expression. He rarely smiles (unlike Obama), and when he does it seems forced.
Romney’s wife was also interviewed and she talked of nothing except HERSELF. She reminds me of the girls I knew in high school who thought they were so cool and so perfect. They wouldn’t give the time of day to poor or unpopular kids. They were much too far above that.
There’s absolutely no way I want to see Romney in the role of MY president. He just gives me the creepy-crawlies.
I really believe it is all about the power for him. It has nothing to do with serving his country and the people of the USA. I think becoming more wealthy has something to do with it alsobut the main reason is power. Oh and maybe being able to do something his daddy didn’t.
@happyguy-of course it is about power and a little bit about pride. That’s why ALL politicians run no matter what they say. Obama is the same way. However, I think you are correct about Romney in some ways. I think he comes across as a stuffed shirt who is talking down to people. The only reason I am thinking about voting for him is because I just do not like the liberal programs and excessive debt that Obama has allowed. I don’t care if Bush did it or not as that is no excuse for continuing the problem. I just think Romney is the lessor of two evils.
You said it much better than I did. It really is the POWER thing, isn’t it? He would have every wealthy & powerful person in the country worshipping him and bowing at his feet (in return for “favors”, of course). As for the rest of us? Better luck next time!
He & GW have a little too much in common. GW went after Saddam Hussein because his daddy didn’t get him, and now Romney wants to be president because his daddy failed at that.
Obama is the real thing. Nothing was handed to him. He didn’t have “Daddy” picking him up by the boot straps whenever he stumbled. And just look where he is now. That’s called determination. And he is determined to finish what he started in getting this country back to greatness again. We MUST give him another four years.
Just to clarify, my last comment was directed at happyguy. (I sure do miss the way our comments used to show up right away.)
@JustMyOpinion-You are correct in one sense, Obama’s daddy didn’t give him all that stuff but his favorite Uncle Sam sure did. How do you think he went to all those college’s. We paid for it. I would much rather his daddy had paid for it rather than my tax money. Your argument doesn’t hold water but nice try. The liberals always try that crap. Is it Romney’s fault that his daddy was wealthy?
Mitt Romney has been ordered around by his church all his life. If they tell him to teach Sunday School at such and such a church, he has to do it. He may be exempted if he becomes president, but he may not. During his life, he has been assigned to be a “teacher” to others once a week and others have to “teach” him once a week. That’s the way his church works. He has had to mingle with regular people all his life. The closest Mormon church to the White House is primarily black and hispanic. He may well be assigned to that church. Mitt has mentored a lot of ordinary people that you apparently haven’t read about. I am not a religious person, but I do believe that his religion has kept him somewhat grounded in spite of his great wealth.
I’d much rather have a president who is a little uncomfortable being in the public eye than one who thought he was the messiah and now has turned into a petulant candidate seeking revenge for who knows what.
Katie, really? Seeking revenge? For what? And you know what tickles me? How do we know he ISN’T the Messiah? Think on that one for a while.
Hey, he’s the one who talked about getting revenge. He’s no messiah. If he were, we’d all know it by now. A messiah would not be dividing our country the way he is.
If you really think that obama might be the messiah then I have some coolaide for you. To those people that say they are not voting for romney because you don’t like the way he looks then I guess it doesn’t matter that he has run many multimillion dollar companies and turned a profit and obama has done what, spent trillions of dollars and borrowed even more.
@maybe We have borrowed trillions from China to fight the wars in the Middleeast. Many people voted against Romney because he wants to start another one with Iran. Going to Afganistan to destroy the Taliban everyone was for but staying and trying to make it a democracy was a mistake. This country became a democracy because the people here wanted to be that way not because another country came here and made us be that way.
Just what we need is a president that gets ordered around by his church. Did they tell him to be against abortion and gay marriage then for them then against them. The Republicans only want to help the rich and tell everyone they have to live by the rules of their God. If they continue this they will be losing more elections.
Oh, the irony that he is polling 47% nationally.
It just goes to show you that you can’t trust those liberal, left-wing polling sources.
Romney will win this election.