On Romney's day, he looks past Dem doubt, despair

Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney joins his wife, Ann Romney on stage during the Republican National Convention on August 28, 2012 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
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Posted: 08/30/2012

By: Calvin Woodward and Donna Cassata

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - Republican Mitt Romney is stepping up for the most important speech of his life, ready to tell an audience of millions that America's best days are ahead after years of "difficulties and disappointments, doubt and despair" under President Barack Obama.

Having grasped the GOP nomination on his second try, after years spent reaching for this moment, Romney will use his speech Thursday night at the Republican National Convention to introduce himself to a large swath of voters just tuning in to the long-running presidential contest and to claw for advantage in a race that could scarcely be any closer.

Romney hinted at his speech themes in a morning fundraising appeal emailed to supporters, and aides said the convention's final night would fill out a portrait of the GOP nominee as a successful businessman, fix-it guy for the 2002 Olympics and trustworthy candidate devoted to his family and faith.

"We believe in America, even though the last four years have been full of difficulties and disappointments, doubt and despair," Romney wrote. "We believe in America, even though President Obama's failed policies have left us with record high unemployment, lower take-home pay, and the weakest economy since the Great Depression."

A new campaign plane painted with the slogan "Believe in America" was ready to whisk Romney and Ryan out of Tampa when the GOP ticket bursts out of Florida on Friday morning, first stop the battleground state of Virginia.

The GOP nominee spent his morning visiting with extended family — about 120 people, he guessed — and tending to the never-ending demand for campaign cash at two meetings with donors. Romney visited the convention hall in the afternoon to get a feel for the podium and take a group photo with campaign staff.

There was no shortage of advice for Romney from armchair speechwriters on all sides.

Jeb Bush, the brother and son of former presidents, said it was critical for the normally reserved GOP nominee to connect with people on an emotional level — even if he's never going to be "a new-age kind of guy."

"Where it matters is connecting with other people's concerns," Bush said in a round of morning talk show interviews. Only then, he said, will voters be ready to hear the candidate's case.

Overnight, convention planners transformed the stage, extending it about 12 feet to move the candidate closer to the audience. A clear barrier surrounded the bottom steps.

In a brief preview of Thursday night's speeches, Republican officials said members of the Mormon church, former business associates of Romney, including Staples President Tom Stemberg, and past Olympic athletes will help introduce the Republican candidate.

As part of his introduction, Romney appeared prepared to discuss his Mormon faith in more direct terms than usual, a direction signaled by running mate Paul Ryan on Wednesday night in several allusions to the duo's differing religions but "same moral creed."

The Wisconsin congressman, a deficit hawk who's become the party's darling since joining the ticket, offered a prime-time testimonial Wednesday night setting up Romney's turn on the stage one day later.

White House spokesman Jay Carney couldn't say whether Obama would watch Romney's speech, but said the president was "fully aware" of the happenings in Tampa this week. He declined to say whether Ryan's speech was factually accurate, but criticized Romney's campaign more broadly for distorting Obama's record and policy positions.

"Perhaps when the facts aren't on your side, you ignore the facts," Carney said.

The Obama campaign, for its part, was quick to pick apart Ryan's address, releasing a new Web video with a fact-check of what it said were inaccuracies in the congressman's criticisms of the president, and branding the GOP ticket wrong for the middle class. In the warm-up for Romney's speech, the Democrats also released a second Web video highlighting past criticisms of Romney on his record as Massachusetts governor and his budget priorities.

After a two-day campaign tour through college towns, the president was staying out of the spotlight Thursday, ceding center stage to Romney.

But in an interview with Time magazine released Thursday, Obama said he was hopeful for a more productive second term if re-elected, because "the American people will have made a decision. And, hopefully, that will impact how Republicans think about these problems."

"My expectation is that there will be some popping of the blister after this election, because it will have been such a stark choice," Obama said.

If history is a guide, viewership of Romney's speech — and Obama's address to his Democratic convention next week — will be surpassed only by the audience for their coming debates.

The first night of the GOP convention drew an estimated 22.3 million TV viewers, the vast majority over 55. The Nielsen ratings company said that figure was down from the 23.1 million who watched the first

full night of the 2008 convention, which nominated John McCain. Nielsen said just 1.5 million of those who watched Tuesday's convention session were in the 18-34 age group.

The Republican convention's most rah-rah moments were unfolding as Hurricane Isaac, downgraded to a tropical storm, inflicted floodwaters and misery in rural stretches of nearby Gulf states.

Ryan, 42, came on board the campaign for the White House with a reputation in Washington for taking on the sacred cows in government spending, Medicare prime among them. He's also generated plenty of excitement among conservatives who have never been fully convinced that Romney is one of them. "I think he's a rock star for the Republicans," Allie Burgin, a delegate from Wynnewood, Okla., said before the speech. And that's how he was received on the stage.

Ann Romney, in an interview with WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee taped before Ryan's speech, said Ryan and her husband are a "dynamic duo" who complement one another: "They're both very wonky when it comes to the intricacies of the budget ... You get the two of them together and they're like two pigs in slop."

In his speech, Ryan was particularly cutting in his indictment of the president, even in a convention loaded with anti-Obama rhetoric. "Fear and division are all they've got left," he said. "It all started off with stirring speeches, Greek columns, the thrill of something new. Now all that's left is a presidency adrift, surviving on slogans that already seem tired, grasping at a moment that has already passed."

In a letter sent Thursday morning to potential Democratic donors, Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said Ryan's speech "represents a huge bet by the Romney campaign — they've decided that facts, truth and reality will not be a brake on their campaign message."

Sen. John Kerry, the party's 2004 nominee, also issued a fundraising appeal, saying Democrats need to "respond quickly and powerfully to attacks from the other side." Kerry, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, said ads from outside groups attacking his military record were "burned into my memory" and that Romney has far more to spend on advertising this time.

Romney spokesman Kevin Madden said days earlier that the nominee would discuss his Mormon religion in his convention address as part of "what's informed his values."

Ryan, a Roman Catholic, took up the matter conspicuously, and no doubt as part of the convention's carefully crafted message.

"Mitt and I also go to different churches," he said. "But in any church, the best kind of preaching is done by example. And I've been watching that example. The man who will accept your nomination tomorrow is prayerful and faithful and honorable."

Obama, asked in the Time interview what he admired about Romney, said the GOP nominee "seems to walk the walk and not just be talking the talk when it comes to his participation in his church."

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Woodward reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Steve Peoples in Indianapolis, Julie Pace in Charlottesville, Va., Jim Kuhnhenn in Washington and Philip Elliott, Beth Fouhy, Tamara Lush and Elizabeth Bunn in Tampa, Fla., contributed to this report.

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