Mitt Romney challenged Barack Obama in a Tuesday night speech in Bedford, N.H., saying their competing economic visions represented a struggle over the soul of America. Shortly after being introduced by his wife Ann to the citizens crowding Bedford's Town Hall, Romney declared, "The battle we face today is not over the budget, but over our soul."
Approximately 200 people were in attendance, along with about 50 journalists. All were crammed into the small confines of the Bedford Town Hall, the meetinghouse for the former farm town turned middle class suburb.
Ann Romney sat off-stage next to former Sen. Judd Gregg, who has endorsed her husband, as have many prominent New Hampshire Republicans.
Line in the Sand
Dressed in a preppy, high-WASP casual outfit of dark blue jacket, faded blue jeans and Bass Weejuns, Romney spoke before a large American flag and banner bearing his campaign slogan, "Believe in America." The podium was equipped with a teleprompter, but Romney had a paper text whose pages he turned as he spoke.
Though it did not mention Newt Gingrich, Romney's speech also drew a line in the sand for the former Speaker of the House, who had scheduled an appearance in neighboring Manchester for the next day. Romney was signaling he was ready to fight for New Hampshire.
It was not a major address, but it attracted a great deal of press attention and served to blunt the media impact of Gingrich's impending Wednesday campaign event, in which he will be endorsed by Bill O'Brien, the Speaker of the New Hampshire General Court, according to the Washington Post. A hard-right Republican, O'Brien is a major figure in the Granite State tea party movement.
The longtime front runner in New Hampshire primary polls, Romney flat out asked for the votes of the audience. He and Ann were beginning a bus tour that would cross the Granite State.
Vision of America
Romney was more impassioned than normal as he hammered away at President Obama. Recycling old and new themes, he claimed he represented equal opportunity and the American Dream, while Obama was the embodiment of an entitlement society of equal outcomes in which everyone suffered.
"I have a vision of a very different America," he said, "an America united not by our limits but by our ambitions, our hopes and our shared dreams."
Romney portrayed the incumbent President as a negative figure, alien to the positive spirit of the American Dream.
"I am tired of a president who wakes up every day, looks out across America and is proud to announce, 'It could be worse,'" he said.
"It could be worse? Is that what it means to be an American? It could be worse?
No!" he said. "If I am president I will wake up every day and remind Americans that not only must we do better but also that we can do better. I believe in America."
The audience enthusiastically embraced Romney and his rhetoric.
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