In a press call and campaign memo today, Mitt Romney campaign senior adviser Ed Gillespie laid out the campaign’s messaging for the coming week. Saying that “We cannot afford four more years like the last four,” Gillespie said that the American people know that “We need a real recovery,” one that unleashes US energy production and the broader economy.

Gillespie said that both Romney and running mate Paul Ryan will talk about the benefits of the Romney-Ryan plan for the middle class, as well as the costs of Obama’s plan, in campaign appearances this week. The campaign, according to Gillespie, will emphasize the “stark choice” that American voters face between the two visions for the country’s future that the campaigns are laying out.

Gillespie’s remarks on the call coincide with his campaign memo, released earlier today.

From:              Ed Gillespie, Senior Adviser
To:                  Interested Parties
Date:               September 24, 2012
Re:                  We can’t afford four more years like the last four years.  We need a real recovery.

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will continue talking about the Romney-Ryan Plan for a Stronger Middle Class, with an emphasis this week on the policies that will help make trade work for America and enable us to be energy independent by 2020.  They will talk about the need to protect U.S. intellectual property rights from cheaters in China, open new markets with trade agreements ignored by the Obama Administration, approve the Keystone pipeline so thousands of Americans can be working on a pipeline instead of standing in an unemployment line, and lifting the moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

In addition to the specifics of the policies, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will stress the benefits to Americans: more jobs, higher take-home pay, more affordable energy, increased exports for American goods and services.

These benefits are in sharp contrast to the cost of President Obama’s policies, which have resulted in chronically high unemployment, falling household incomes and gas that costs $2 more per gallon today than when he took office.

This election is a choice. And the simple fact is, we can’t afford four more years of Obama’s failed policies. This is not what a real recovery looks like.  A real recovery would result in 12 million new jobs, as the Romney Plan will.  A real recovery would unleash more domestic energy, as the Romney Plan will.  A real recovery would make it easier for small businesses to open and expand, as the Romney Plan will.

We need a real recovery.

These will be the themes of the Ohio bus tour this week.  Voters will get to know more not only about the specifics of the Romney Plan, but how it will benefit them.  A real recovery will improve the quality of life for working Americans, and lift millions out of poverty by making jobs available again.

Noting that the Obama administration filed a complaint against China for unfair trade practices after the Romney campaign criticized the president for being soft on China in an ad, Gillespie joked that if the campaign knew an ad was all it would take to get the administration to move, they would have released the ad “a long time ago” to help American workers against China’s “cheating.”

Gillespie also said that Romney and Ryan will both be doing more campaign appearances going forward, and fewer fundraisers.