Republican challenger avoids praise of government’s Sandy response in first of three campaign stops in crucial swing state.
Mitt Romney sidestepped a controversy over whether he plans to shut down the federal emergency response agency at an election rally in Florida where he is struggling to hold onto a once commanding lead in the opinion polls.
Speaking at a Tampa airport hangar in his first stop since campaigning was put on hold by superstorm Sandy, Romney alluded briefly to the hurricane by saying it was a demonstration of how Americans pull together in time of crisis.
“We’re going through trauma in a major part of the country,” he said. “It’s interesting to see how people come together in a circumstance like this. We see folks from all over the the country step forward and offer contributions.”
But the Republican candidate avoided praise for the government’s relief response and did not touch on questions dogging him about a statement he made last year saying he would scrap Fema, which has led the post-Sandy recovery efforts. Romney hasn’t been helped by the Republican New Jersey governor Chris Christie’s praise of Fema and Barack Obama’s handling of the crisis.
But the former Florida governor, Jeb Bush, did weigh in at the Romney rally. He reminded the crowd that Florida was hit by eight hurricanes and four tropical storms in 2004/5. He added that, from his experience, “local level and state level” is better at handling the response than Fema. The audience cheered.
Romney was making three stops on Wednesday in Florida, where his substantial bounce in support after Obama’s disastrous first debate performance has evaporated. Polls put the Republican candidate up to seven percentage points ahead a month ago, but a New York Times survey on Wednesday has the president back in front, even if only by one point.
If Romney fails to take Florida, he stands little chance of winning the election.
He played to the crowd in a part of the country where Hispanic voters could decide the issue with a promise to boost trade with Latin America, saying it’s economy is a big as China’s and that it doesn’t cheat as much.
He also dwelled on Florida’s role in the space programme with a lengthy story about the scouts and a flag on the space shuttle Challenger when it blew up. The flag survived. The crowd was won over. But, after his earlier denunciations of federal spending, Romney managed not to mention that the space programme is government funded.
It was among the more effective parts of a speech that was long on railing against corporate tax rates and working with Democrats as governor of Massachusetts to cut spending.
Paro Amram, a Romney supporter and environmental engineer, was mostly impressed.
“I found it very moving. He talked about the national character and how the country pulls together through hard times,” he said.
But Amram said he thought Romney is probably wrong about Fema.
“I do think there’s a federal role. Fema has tremendous resources and these people spend a lot of time planning,” he said. “There’s some balance needed.”
(The Guardian)
