In Michigan, Romney goes after Mccain
Posted: Friday, January 11, 2008 3:30 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC/NJ's Erin McPike
WARREN, Mich. -- Romney descended on the Wolverine State this morning and started throwing punches at McCain as soon as he hit the ground.
Speaking for just more than 10 minutes at Macomb Community College, his stump was a revolving mixture of the following three themes: attacks on McCain, reminders that Washington is in dire need of repair and the pleadings that Romney knows Michigan well -- and loves it. And he pounded the drum on that trio over and over again.
“I hear from time to time from Washington politicians that they’re aware of the difficulty that Michigan is having, but what have they done?” Romney said. “I hear even Sen. McCain said the other day, speaking with straight talk, he said, ‘you know some jobs are gone that are never coming back.’ And I’m not willing to accept defeat like that.”
Drilling down further into the matter, Romney ripped into Washington with question after question about what the federal government has done to lend a hand to Michigan. He continued on at his target with: “Now everybody’s interested of course because they’re running for president. But what did they do when they were in the Senate and the House for 27 years? What action did you take?” (The target was decidedly McCain, but the Arizona senator has actually served for 25 years, 21 of which have been in the Senate, though Romney frequently says 27.)
Surrounded by cars inside a automotive training center, Romney started speaking his audience’s language about half-way through his remarks when he launched into his thoughts on CAFÉ fuel standards. It was the only time he really delved into specifics on policy. “I wasn’t wild about those,” he said of the requirements, “because even though we all agree we want to see our fuel economy standards go up, when CAFÉ was put in place, it helped the foreign manufacturers and hurt the domestics. It hurt our jobs here. That wasn’t the kind of help we need.”
Romney acknowledged that his remarks have been very “Michigan-centric,” but he explained that he sees the state as a microcosm for the rest of the country’s economy.
“In Michigan, we can show how we can turn this state around so we can turn around any state or any industry that’s under attack. It’s not just all Michigan, even though it is very personal to me. It’s about America,” he said.
