TAMPA, Fla. — Arkansas Republicans said Thursday they’ve nominated a presidential candidate who can unseat Barack Obama and unharness the struggling American economy.
And they’re predicting sweeping Republican gains in the state Legislature and on Capitol Hill.
Republican nominee Mitt Romney has “been successful in everything he’s ever done,” said U.S. Sen. John Boozman. “He’s a good businessman, his ability at the Olympics was legendary, he’s a turnaround guy, and I believe he’s the kind of guy that is going to instill confidence in the country and get us moving in the right direction.”
U.S. Rep. Steve Womack, R-Rogers, calls Romney “a great family man [with] impeccable character” who has qualities that are “uniquelypresidential.”
And with Americans clamoring for change, “I believe we have the perfect storm for a tremendous Republican victory in November,” Womack said, predicting Republican control of Congress and the White House. “We have tremendous momentum coming out of this convention. ... I personally believe that our country is about to embrace a new direction for our nation.”
Arkansas’ convention delegates portrayed Obama as a failed president.
With Democrats in the White House, “We’ve overspent, we’ve been overregulated, we’ve overborrowed,” said Little Rock delegate Alex Reed. “It’s time for Arkansas and America to wake up and realize the policies of Barack Obama are failures, and weneed to elect Mitt Romney.”
Republicans say Obama squandered his chances to fix the U.S. economy.
“If you look at the record objectively, in about every category, he’s made things worse,” Boozman said, claiming that under Obama, unemployment has climbed and the number of Americans on food stamps is going up.
“The only thing that’s gone down is the value of our homes,” Boozman said.
Delegate Patricia Nation, a Jacksonville lawyer, said she had high hopes for Obama when he gave the keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
“When he talked about red states and blue states [and] that we are all the United States, I got chills,” Nation said.
And she remained hopeful after Obama’s 2008 victory.
“He was going to change the culture of Washington. That was very exciting to me,” she said. “[And] with his approval ratings at the time, I felt like anything was possible.”
Looking back, she said, “I think there was an opportunity that he failed to seize upon, a moment for our nation.”
The state’s party activists hope this week’s convention has energized Republican voters and persuaded millions of undecided voters to make Obama a one-term president.
But Obama supporters will get their own chance to sway the nation when they gather next week for the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C.
Arkansas Democratic Party spokesman Candace Martin said Romney and vice presidential running mate Paul Ryan are “completely out of touch with the needs of everyday Arkansans” and represent a return to the policies of the Bush era.
She also accused Republicans of shading the truth inorder to win the election.
“They’ve lied about [former] Gov. Romney’s record and President Obama’s record. They’re willing to distract and distort and that’s all they have to run on,” she said.
Republicans say voters can decide for themselves whether they’re better off than they were four years ago.
And they say they’re confident that Americans are ready - once again - for change.
“We have really big problems, and we need someone who knows how to fix them,” said U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin, a Little Rock Republican who addressed the convention Tuesday.
“With all due respect to the president - I’ve said it in my speech - I just don’t think he has any earthly idea what he’s doing. To be blunt, I think he’s clueless about how to create jobs.”
Front Section, Pages 9 on 08/31/2012