U.S. election: Mitt Romney ?embarrassed? by convention praise, talks numbers in Florida

LAKELAND, FLA.?Less than 12 hours after a convention finale expressly designed to show America that he is more than just a numbers guy, Mitt Romney held a campaign rally down the highway and talked numbers.

If Thursday?s heartstring-pulling family video and heartfelt personal testimonials were supposed to introduce a softer version of the Republican nominee with the persistent likability problem, the nominee himself is ? by his own admission ? not yet fully comfortable with his latest incarnation.

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The Romney who spoke Friday morning on the sweltering tarmac of a regional airport in Florida?s battleground region was the metrics-toting businessman of the pre-convention campaign. His energetic 10-minute speech was dedicated largely to his core message: President Barack Obama has mismanaged the economy.

?He said that he would be measured in a different way than other people are typically measured. He would be measured by whether he created jobs or not. He hasn?t,? Romney said. ?He said he would be measured by whether people have rising incomes or not. They don?t. Incomes are down in this country.

?He said he would be measured by whether people would take the risk to go out and start a business. We?re at a 30-year low in new business startups.

?Almost every measure he described, he has failed to perform upon,? Romney continued. ?And the reason for that is not that he was not trying. In my view, it was he was pulling in the wrong direction. He did not know what it takes to actually make the economy work. Paul Ryan and I understand how the economy works.?

He then inadvertently called America a ?company? instead of a country: ?We will reach across the aisle and find good people who, like us, want to make sure this company deals with its challenges.?

The gaffe may further hamper his efforts to convince voters he cares about more than dollars and cents.

Ryan, the vice-presidential nominee, and Romney?s wife Ann, who gave a well-received speech about her husband on the opening night of the convention, also spoke briefly, two new campaign planes serving as a backdrop. Romney and Ryan then abandoned their planned day of joint campaigning so Romney could visit hurricane-damaged Louisiana.

In Lakeland, a city of 100,000 located between Tampa and Orlando in the hotly contested ?I-4 corridor? region, Romney complimented Ann, saying his ?lady in red back there? had delivered a speech he would ?never forget.? He also told a joke about his five adult sons piling on to his floor, as he told the convention they did as children.

Otherwise, he declined to offer a personal touch ? and said, in an aside unusual for a politician, that he felt he had been praised too strongly by the cavalcade of friends who heaped compliments upon his character Thursday.

?So last night you got to know me a little better with some friends that talked about my life, the things that have been part of my life in the past,? he said. ?I talked to you a little bit about my family and I was embarrassed from time to time with the nice things that were said. Some people were overly generous, but I appreciated it.?

It is too soon to know whether Romney will get the usual ?convention bump? in the polls. Conventions typically boost a candidate?s fortunes by about 5 percentage points; Romney aides, as is their wont, have attempted to lower expectations.

Florida publications put the Lakeland crowd size at 3,500. A large percentage were seniors, at least two of whom collapsed in the heat. Many were military veterans. The cheers at the end of Romney?s speech were tepid, but most attendees said they had enjoyed it, and hundreds stuck around to try to shake the candidate?s hand.

David Hofmann, who works at the Publix supermarket chain that is headquartered nearby, said afterward that Romney needs to keep talking about himself as a family man. ?Last night was great as to getting the rest of America to realize who he is as a person, because he?s a very compassionate person from what I gather,? said Hofman, 54. ?I think the softer side of him is what people need to see.?

Others, like pastor Rodney Cannon, 35, are content with the professional Mitt that Romney prefers to present. ?He wore jeans,? Cannon said with a shrug. ?That helps.?

Source: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/uselection/article/1250084--u-s-election-mitt-romney-embarrassed-by-convention-praise-talks-numbers-in-florida

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