Mitt Romney, the multimillionaire former governor of Massachusetts, will kick off his second bid for the White House on Thursday with a hard-hitting economic message charging that "Barack Obama has failed America." The Republican front-runner so far, Romney starts his campaign in New Hampshire, the early-voting state where a win in February's primary election is crucial to his chance of winning the party nomination to face President Barack Obama in the November 2012 election.
In a speech on Thursday, Romney will blame "the Obama economy" for the job losses and home foreclosures that have plagued Americans during the Democratic president's first term. With unemployment high and the housing market still soft, the economy is Obama's main weakness, although polls say the president is still favoured over all potential Republican opponents.
Americans are also concerned about federal spending, the mounting national debt and a budget deficit projected to reach $1.4 trillion this year. "Government under President Obama has grown to consume almost 40 percent of our economy. We are only inches away from ceasing to be a free-market economy," Romney will say in his speech, according to excerpts released by his campaign.
Romney, who lost the Republican nomination to John McCain in the 2008 race, has a slimmer campaign team this time around. The former head of venture capital firm Bain Capital, Romney has a powerful campaign finance apparatus in place. He raised an astounding $10.25 million in an eight-hour phone-a-thon in Las Vegas last month. Romney's biggest stumbling block could be his support as governor for a Massachusetts healthcare program that became a model for Obama's national healthcare overhaul.
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