Romney is Republican nominee for US president, blasts Obama

RACE IS ON. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney (right) and vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan wave from the stage on the final day of the Republican National Convention. AFP

TAMPA, FLORIDA—Mitt Romney accepted the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday by making a direct appeal to Americans who were captivated by President Barack Obama’s hopeful promises of change, pledging that he could deliver what the president did not and move the country from its worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

The speech by Romney, delivered on the closing night of the Republican convention, signaled an attempt to redefine the race around his business background, which Democrats have spent the summer attacking. He urged voters not to feel guilty about giving up on Obama, even if they were proud to support him as the nation’s first black president.

“You know there’s something wrong with the kind of job he’s done as president,” Romney said, “when the best feeling you had was the day you voted for him.”

Fresh momentum

The energetic convention injected fresh momentum into Romney’s bid, starting the gun on 10 weeks of hectic campaigning in what looks like a nail-biting election.

There were no major hiccups during three nights of political razzle-dazzle that had many strong points, including a bold attempt by his wife Ann to show his more human qualities and a consummate performance from running mate Paul Ryan.

After a barnstorming introduction from rising Hispanic star Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Romney produced a steady if not spectacular speech that nonetheless presented him with a prime-time pitch for his jobs-and-economy message.

The convention focused on a carefully choreographed attempt to rebrand the candidate’s awkward image, using Olympians to remind American voters that the former Massachusetts governor saved the 2002 Winter Olympics from financial ruin, and even members of his Mormon church to humanize him.

Makeover not successful’

But University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor Charles Franklin told AFP that the makeover may not have entirely succeeded.

“I think it is asking a lot of a single convention to completely change the image of any candidate, especially at the end of a long primary season and, in Romney’s case, a presidential run four years ago,” Franklin said.

“I believe the convention may get some voters at least to look on Romney in a slightly different way in terms of personal appeal, but it was a very hard goal to achieve, to fundamentally change the way voters see him.”

Candidates typically get around a five-percent poll bump from their nominating conventions, but experts did not expect such a big move from either Romney or Obama this time around.

“What’s difficult for Romney is simply the fact that the Democratic convention picks up in just four days so there’s not very much time for the Republican message to stand alone before the Democrats get the last word,” Franklin said.

With 67 days remaining before Election Day, the presidential race has been essentially locked in place, with each side hoping to win over a small slice of the electorate that is still undecided. The Democratic Party will offer its rebuttal at its own convention next week in North Carolina, with voters being left to judge whether either party advanced its case.

Likability factor

After trailing for months, Romney, a 65-year-old multimillionaire former venture capitalist has recently drawn even in national polls with Obama, an incumbent saddled with a sluggish US economy and stubbornly high unemployment.

Romney has touted his business acumen, arguing that he has the skills necessary to steer America back to prosperity, but he trails Obama badly in terms of likability and can come across as stiff, awkward and out of touch.

An ABC News/Washington Post poll carried out ahead of the convention found that just 40 percent of Americans viewed Romney “favorably overall” while 51 percent view him as unfavorable.

That’s considerably worse than Obama, who enjoys a 50-47 percent rating, and Romney’s are the lowest favorability ratings of any major party nominee at the time of the convention since at least 1984, the pollsters said.

“The Romney convention speeches show that the campaign believes the theme is in fact the weakness of the Obama administration and they’re ready to pick that battle up,” said Franklin, cofounder of Pollster.com.

“I think we have the makings in the Romney theme tonight, the substance, of two months of hard-fought campaigning.”

Ryan energizes bid

Ryan definitely energized Romney’s White House bid on Wednesday as he took the baton of vice presidential nominee with a scathing takedown of Obama’s economic record that was particularly well-received by the Republican faithful.

The Wisconsin congressman challenged Obama head-on about the serious issues facing America, curbing the deficit and restoring growth, although the media’s initially glowing report card was later tarred as fact-checking revealed a few questions of accuracy.

In a campaign where foreign policy has often been a side note, Romney showed that he does not intend to shy away from aggressively challenging Obama’s foreign policy. He said the president had “abandoned our friends in Poland,” been duped by Iran and been too weak toward Russia.

“Every American was relieved the day President Obama gave the order and Seal Team 6 took out Osama bin Laden,” Romney said. “But on another front, every American is less secure today because he has failed to slow Iran’s nuclear threat.”

A bit of old Hollywood

But the evening was not entirely serious, with a bizarre element of stagecraft playing out as the actor Clint Eastwood strode into the convention hall to deliver a meandering monologue that criticized the president. He used an empty bar stool sitting on stage as a prop to hold an imaginary conversation with Obama, which occupied the first 15 minutes of coverage on the broadcast television networks.

Life story unspooled

Throughout the evening, Romney’s life story unspooled before the Republican delegates inside the Tampa Bay Times Forum. Testimonials were intended to reshape perceptions about Romney that have hardened after a negative television advertising campaign from the president and his Democratic allies. Business owners, longtime friends, Olympic athletes and fellow Mormons offered personal anecdotes to help humanize Romney.

The stories were intended to help build a fuller picture of Romney, who has been reluctant to talk about some details of his private life. During his speech, he also talked about his Mormon faith, a subject he rarely raises during the campaign, saying, “My friends cared more about what sports teams we followed than what church we went to.”

He beamed as he recalled his childhood in Michigan, where his father was governor and a Republican presidential candidate in 1968. He struck out on his own, saying: “If I stayed around Michigan in the same business, I never would know if I got a break because of my dad.”

The speech was warmly received among Republicans who were interviewed as balloons and confetti slowly fell from the rafters and Romney was joined on stage by his running mate, Rep. Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, and their families.

Mike Osborne, 63, a delegate from California, said: “His opponents have tried to define him as a rich kid from Michigan who lived off his parents. I know that’s not true, but now everybody else will too. I felt an energy in the room I have not felt before.” With a report from New York Times News Service