Mitt Romney gave a fiery speech after his expected win in the New Hampshire GOP primary race this Tuesday evening which was full of red meat for the base and full of lies and ad hominem attacks on President Obama and a lot of projection to boot.
It started out with a lot of the standard fare we've heard from him on the campaign trail, claiming that our current President who has, to a fault in my opinion, bent over backwards to try to get Republicans to work with him only to be met with unprecedented obstruction every step of the way is the one dividing America.
ROMNEY: We remember when Barack Obama came to New Hampshire four years ago.
He promised to bring people together.
He promised to change the broken system in Washington.
He promised to improve our nation.
Those were the days of lofty promises made by a hopeful candidate. Today, we are faced with the disappointing record of a failed President. The last three years have held a lot of change, but they haven’t offered much hope.
Then from a member of the party that's been trying to sabotage the economy on purpose for political gain, Romney went on to attack President Obama for failing to turn the economy around quickly enough, as though he's the only one that's got any control over that, or that Mitt Romney has any credibility on the issue of job creation.
ROMNEY: The middle class has been crushed. Nearly 24 million of our fellow Americans are still out of work, struggling to find work, or have just stopped looking. The median income has dropped 10% in four years. Soldiers returning from the front lines are waiting in unemployment lines. Our debt is too high and our opportunities too few.
And this President wakes up every morning, looks out across America and is proud to announce, “It could be worse.”
It could be worse? Is that what it means to be an American? It could be worse?
Of course not.
What defines us as Americans is our unwavering conviction that we know it must be better.
That conviction guides our campaign. It has rallied millions of Americans in every corner of this country to our cause.
Over the last six months, I’ve listened to anxious voices in town meetings and visited with students and soldiers. In break rooms and living rooms, I’ve heard stories of families getting by on less, of carefully planned retirements now replaced by jobs at minimum wage. But even now, amidst the worst economy since the Great Depression, I’ve rarely heard a refrain of hopelessness.
Americans know that our future is brighter and better than these troubled times. We still believe in the hope, the promise, and the dream of America. We still believe in that shining city on a hill.
We know that the future of this country is better than 8 or 9% unemployment.
It is better than $15 trillion in debt.
It is better than the misguided policies and broken promises of the last three years – and the failed leadership of one man.
The President has run out of ideas. Now, he’s running out of excuses. And tonight, we are asking the good people of South Carolina to join the citizens of New Hampshire and make 2012 the year he runs out of time.
This next portion of Romney's speech is something I could only describe as his "don't hate me because I'm rich" segment. Heaven forbid we shouldn't have more "freedom" for vulture capitalists like Mitt Romney to help "restore" America back to a time when we still had a thriving middle class and people like him weren't "free" to put people out of work and raid their pension funds. And lord knows we don't want to be anything like those evil Socialist Europeans.
ROMNEY: President Obama wants to put free enterprise on trial. In the last few days, we have seen some desperate Republicans join forces with him. This is such a mistake for our Party and for our nation. This country already has a leader who divides us with the bitter politics of envy. We must offer an alternative vision. I stand ready to lead us down a different path, where we are lifted up by our desire to succeed, not dragged down by a resentment of success. In these difficult times, we cannot abandon the core values that define us as unique -- We are One Nation, Under God.
Make no mistake, in this campaign, I will offer the American ideals of economic freedom a clear and unapologetic defense.
Our campaign is about more than replacing a President; it is about saving the soul of America. This election is a choice between two very different destinies.
President Obama wants to “fundamentally transform” America. We want to restore America to the founding principles that made this country great.
He wants to turn America into a European-style entitlement society. We want to ensure that we remain a free and prosperous land of opportunity.
This President takes his inspiration from the capitals of Europe; we look to the cities and small towns of America.
Romney then goes on to blame President Obama for causing the downgrade of our AAA credit rating, which should rightfully be blamed on the Republicans instead -- GOP Causes S&P Downgrade, but Republican Candidates Blame Obama.
ROMNEY: This President puts his faith in government. We put our faith in the American people.
He is making the federal government bigger, burdensome, and bloated. I will make it simpler, smaller, and smarter.
He raised the national debt. I will cut, cap, and balance the budget.
He enacted job-killing regulations; I’ll eliminate them.
He lost our AAA credit rating; I’ll restore it.
I'm not sure what he'll do to restore it, but that's his talking point and he's sticking with it. Then another one of his standard lines, saying he'll "repeal Obamacare" even though that law was modeled after his health care law in Massachusetts.
ROMNEY: He passed Obamacare; I’ll repeal it.
When it comes to the economy, my highest priority as President will be worrying about your job, not saving my own.
Yeah, because we all know how great Romney's record is on job creation.
Romney then repeats the zombie lie that President Obama "apologizes for America" which our friends over at Media Matters wrote about here -- Right-Wing Media Still Can't Find An Example Of Obama Apologizing For America.
ROMNEY: Internationally, President Obama has adopted an appeasement strategy. He believes America’s role as leader in the world is a thing of the past. I believe a strong America must – and will – lead the future.
He doesn’t see the need for overwhelming American military superiority. I will insist on a military so powerful no one would think of challenging it.
He chastises friends like Israel; I’ll stand with our friends.
He apologizes for America; I will never apologize for the greatest nation in the history of the Earth.
This last bit looks like a pitch to the Ron Paul supporters and more of the "big gubment" is the root of all evils and basically telling everyone that if you thought those social safety nets would be in place for you, think again. Mitt Romney says he wants to "restore America" here, but sadly I think the America he and the rest of his party want to "restore" us to resembles the 1800's instead of the current century.
ROMNEY: Our plans protect freedom and opportunity, and our blueprint is the Constitution of the United States.
The path I lay out is not one paved with ever increasing government checks and cradle-to-grave assurances that government will always be the solution. If this election is a bidding war for who can promise more benefits, then I’m not your President. You have that President today.
But if you want to make this election about restoring American greatness, then I hope you will join us.
If you believe the disappointments of the last few years are a detour, not our destiny, then I am asking for your vote.
I’m asking each of you to remember how special it is to be an American.
I want you to remember what it was like to be hopeful and excited about the future, not to dread each new headline.
I want you to remember when you spent more time dreaming about where to send your kids to college than wondering how to make it to the next paycheck.
I want you to remember when you weren’t afraid to look at your retirement savings or the price at the pump.
I want you to remember when our White House reflected the best of who we are, not the worst of what Europe has become.
That America is still out there. We still believe in that America.
We still believe in the America that is a land of opportunity and a beacon of freedom. We believe in the America that challenges each of us to be better and bigger than ourselves.
This election, let’s fight for the America we love. We believe in America.
Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the United States of America.
Yeah, God bless America. And heaven help us if this man is elected president. For liberals out there who listened to this speech and actually follow politics, I don't know how anyone comes away with thinking that what he said here was beneficial to him. That said I never under estimate the media's ability to spin this and take the portions that suit them out of context to make it look good for Romney, knowing full well that the average voter out there didn't watch the entire speech.
I'm waiting to see how things pan out with Perry and Gingrich's attacks on him now that he's had this expected victory lap in New Hampshire or if they're going to cave to pressure to stop attacking him.
One final note on the video above, it was edited to take out a couple of minutes of the applause for Romney so anyone watching it didn't have to sit through that and could just hear what he said instead. None of his speech was edited out of the clip other than the very beginning where he made a brief comment about President Obama previously campaigning in New Hampshire and those remarks are included in the transcript which is linked in the beginning of the post.
