As has been expected for more than two years, Mitt Romney is running for president. He officially kicked off his campaign today, and sounded the right notes. The election will be about the Obama economy, and that is what Romney focused on:
Mr. Romney accused Mr. Obama of failing to live up to the promise of economic recovery he made during his 2008 campaign. And he blamed the president for high unemployment, rising gasoline prices, falling home values and a soaring national debt.
“At the time, we didn’t know what sort of a president he would make,” Mr. Romney said as he made his announcement from a family farm in New Hampshire. “Now, in the third year of his four-year term, we have more than promises and slogans to go by. Barack Obama has failed America.”
The attacks on Mr. Obama promise to be a centerpiece of Mr. Romney’s campaign as he seeks to present himself as the inevitable choice for Republicans eager to reclaim the White House. In his speech on Thursday, he pledged, without hesitance, to repeal the president’s health care reforms.
Exactly right. Romney’s entry is in no way a “game changer” in the way that a Palin or Perry entry would be, but it is the official entry of the presumed front-runner. Romney brings to the table arguably the most professional staff of the national candidates and the most capable fundraising machine. He also brings a strong resume to bear from his private sector life, and some notable baggage from his tenure as governor of Massachusetts, and his failed run for US Senate against Ted Kennedy. Baggage or not, though, at the moment he’s the man to beat on the GOP side.
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