"I'm Mitt Romney. I believe in America, and I'm running for president of the United States.” With those words, the former Massachusetts governor officially tossed his hat in the ring on Thursday for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination.
Romney’s announcement came even as some Wall Street experts are warning the economy appears headed for a double-dip recession. Those fears are breathing new life into Romney’s hopes of winning the GOP nomination despite lackluster support from grass-roots conservatives.
Recent indices paint an increasingly gloomy picture of a U.S. economy stuck in neutral, unable to shake off plunging real estate values, fragile consumer confidence, and chronically high unemployment.
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That Romney’s announcement came one day after a jittery Dow gave back 2 percent of its value, plunging 280 points, may be pure coincidence. But the timing couldn’t be better for Romney to drive home his message that he’s best suited to challenge Obama’s economic leadership.
“Yes, Romney has right background and is developing the right message to take on Obama,” Democratic pollster and Fox News commentator Doug Schoen tells Newsmax. “Whether he can connect effectively with the grass roots, as well as overcoming his biggest negative -- health care in Massachusetts -- remains the big questions that his candidacy must confront.”
As the chief executive who led the massive Wall Street firm Bain & Company out of a financial crisis, and who also guided guiding the troubled 2002 Winter Olympics Games into profitability, Romney’s financial bona fides are extraordinary for a presidential candidate of either party.
University of Virginia Center for Politics director Larry Sabato tells Newsmax that auspicious timing plays a role in any presidential candidacy.
“Romney will never be the first choice of social conservatives, nor of foreign policy conservatives,” Sabato tells Newsmax. “But his business experience is a solid recommendation to many fiscal conservatives.
“This becomes even more so as long as the economy stays on center stage in the election. The economy is doing so poorly right now that, if we had to guess today, just about everyone would say the economy will determine the general election winner for 2012,” he said.
Sabato adds that the GOP needs a nominee who can speak with expertise on the economy, and can provide a strong contrast to President Obama’s record.
Romney’s announcement came in the context of Wednesday’s news that home values have sunk to 2002 levels – an indication the real estate sector already may have slipped into a double-dip downturn.
Also, the manufacturing sector reported its biggest one-month slow-down since 1984.
On Thursday, analysts reacted with a mixture of disappointment and alarm to news that unemployment claims dropped less than expected last week -- another sign companies just aren’t hiring at significant levels.
All that led market strategist Peter Yastrow of Yastrow Origer to tell CNBC: "Interest rates are amazingly low and that, thanks to Ben Bernanke, is driving everything.
"We’re on the verge of a great, great depression. The [Federal Reserve] knows it,” he said.
In his announcement speech Romney carefully positioned himself as the contender best suited to expose the failings of President Barack Obama’s economic policies.
"Turning around a crisis takes experience and bold action,” he said. “For millions of Americans, the economy is in crisis today. Unless we change course, it'll be a crisis tomorrow."
Romney also vowed to repeal Obamacare and pledged to balance the budget. But his top priority, he said, would be jobs.
“My No. 1 job will be to see that America is No. 1 in job creation,” he said.
In his speech, Romney charged that Obama had “failed America.” Romney took Americans back to the fall of 2008 when they turned to a young, untested senator from Illinois in the hope that he could lead the nation’s faltering economy back to stability. “When Barack Obama came to office we wished him well ... Now we have more than slogans to judge him by. Barack Obama has failed America,” he said.
Romney has struggled at times to ameliorate grass-roots GOP angst over the healthcare reforms he brought to Massachusetts -- the so-called “RomneyCare” plan, which bears significant similarities to ObamaCare. But the nation’s deepening economic woes could cast his candidacy in a new light as the nation searches for a way out of economic stagnation, analysts say.
Not surprisingly, Romney is expected to focus on the economy as job creation as the key issues facing the nation. Romney delivered the speech in New Hampshire. Most pundits consider New Hampshire a must-win state for Romney, if he hopes to capture the GOP presidential nomination.
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