From The Wall Street Journal
He Touts Expertise as Focus Shifts to Economy
By ELIZABETH HOLMES
January 26, 2008; Page A4
The bad economic outlook might be good news for Mitt Romney, the millionaire venture capitalist who is in a tight race here for the Republican presidential nomination.
As voters’ worries have shifted away from the war in Iraq and turned to the roiled markets, Mr. Romney, with his fixation on PowerPoint slides and fever lines, has come into his own on the stump just ahead of Tuesday’s primary. Armed with a stimulus plan that favors big business, a reputation for hard-line cuts and even a sign that boasts “Economic Turnaround,” Mr. Romney has shifted his campaign rhetoric back into his comfort zone.
The new focus has put his opponents on the defensive — but also helped them step up their jabs at the perpetually stiff and rehearsed Mr. Romney. “Gov. Romney is touting his qualifications and his experience and his résumé as a manager,” said Arizona Sen. John McCain. “I am telling the American people, and they know it, that I am a leader.”
His punches didn’t stop there. “You can hire managers all the time. People who do the mechanics, people who implement policies. People who are good with assets,” Mr. McCain told reporters Friday. “Leadership is people who have had the hands-on experience and patriotism in service to our country and the nation.”
Starting at the southern tip of the Sunshine State before flying north Friday to the Panhandle, Mr. Romney, a former head of Bain Capital, was every bit the confident executive. To a crowd standing in the parking lot outside a military-technology manufacturer, Mr. Romney heralded the focus on the economy. “I particularly like the fact that the other candidates are increasingly talking about the issues that you want to have talked about,” he said.
It is what he has wanted to talk about all along. Mr. Romney has served up the economy as part of his stump fare for months. At a debate in Iowa in August, he was asked about fixing roads and bridges following the Minneapolis bridge collapse. As part of his answer, he prescribed: “Invest in the future of the economy.” In December, the first slide of a PowerPoint presentation in Manchester, N.H., was titled, “What is the future of the U.S. economy?”
Now, with troubles from the housing sector spilling over into other markets, Mr. Romney’s financial background gets a warmer reception. “What you want is someone that’s competent,” said Luis Espino, a 38-year-old attorney from Miami and undecided Republican, “someone that’s able to engage with the people that make decisions about the economy.” He paused before adding: “Just like the president does when he’s talking to generals to make military decisions.”
Mr. Romney’s economy-heavy stump speech plays well in Florida, the state with the highest population — roughly 17% — of residents 65 years and older. Many are retirees who worry about their income. “I live on a fixed income, mostly from investments in the Wall Street,” said Mildred Klemp, an 80-year-old Republican living in Naples, who hasn’t decided between Messrs. Romney and McCain. “The bulk of my estate is in the stock market, and I don’t know about that,” she said of the turbulent markets last Tuesday. “Had me worried.”
It also doesn’t hurt that Mr. Romney, with his tanned face and slicked-back hair, looks the part of a successful investor. Mr. Romney also has plenty of experience asking people to trust him with their money. In Iowa and New Hampshire — two early contests he poured resources into only to place second — the 60-year-old regularly brought out PowerPoint presentations with bar charts and bullet points to delve deep into the wonky side of politics.
Mr. Romney touts himself as a turnaround artist, and is a staunch defender of big business. Earlier this month, he held an impromptu news conference outside a General Motors Corp. facility in Ypsilanti, Mich., to talk about the auto industry’s troubles, not to slam the corporate giant for job cuts. “General Motors is taking action to remain competitive, to remain profitable, and that’s essential for the survival of that company,” he said.
Those kinds of comments have opened him up to attacks from his rivals. Mike Huckabee, who came from behind to trounce Mr. Romney in the Iowa caucuses, has repeatedly said voters don’t want a White House run by the “guy who laid them off.” And Mr. McCain has said that running the Senate Commerce Committee, as he has done, is better experience than running an investment company.
Mr. Romney directly responded to those attacks Friday. At an outdoor rally in Pensacola, he ticked off several quotes from Mr. McCain’s past in which the Arizona senator admitted to knowing more about foreign policy than the economy, including when Mr. McCain told reporters in December, “the issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should.”
At a meeting of the Latin Builders Association in Miami Friday morning, Mr. Romney subtly addressed Mr. Huckabee’s critiques — without naming his opponent. Mr. Romney called layoffs “the hardest thing I’ve done in business” and said it was “awful, feels terrible.”
Mr. Romney, speaking to a crowd of executives, sought to turn around the critiques of his business record. “I hear people now and then say not every business that you invested in or managed was successful,” he said. “It’s like, yeah, of course — have you ever been in business before?” He continued: “They don’t all work. That’s the nature of risk and return.”
Mr. Romney’s handling of the touchy subject impressed Israel Velasco, a regional executive for Banco Popular and an undecided voter. “It’s bad times — the experience with those bad times — that help you grow a business,” said Mr. Velasco, a 43-year-old from Coral Gables, Fla. “He was dead on the money when he talked about that.”
Even Republican voters who support other candidates don’t doubt Mr. Romney’s capabilities when it comes to the economy. Daniel Diaz Leyva, a 28-year-old attorney from Coral Gables, said he has great respect for Mr. Romney’s economic expertise but plans to vote for Mr. Giuliani on Tuesday. “You can’t be one-track minded,” he said. “The economy obviously is a huge issue but…experience in foreign affairs, I think, is a big issue.” He’s still holding out hope for Mr. Romney elsewhere in the new administration.
“I hope they appoint him Secretary of the Treasury,” he said.
Write to Elizabeth Holmes at elizabeth.holmes@wsj.com
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