In a rare visit to Iowa ahead of this weekends straw poll, Mitt Romney rips Obama on economy saying Americans were “fearful, but not panicked.” Echoing the recent presidential approval ratings, he also predicts that voters will deny a second term for Obama.
(Reuters) – The Republican presidential front-runner said Obama would lose in Iowa and elsewhere in the general election in November next year because his policies had impeded economic growth and dented confidence.
“He is not up to the task of leading the country at a time of economic crisis,” Romney told reporters after a round-table
with 14 local business leaders in Pella, in southeastern Iowa, where he touted his business experience.
“The president’s policies have made it more difficult for enterprises to grow and thrive at a time when this economy is in trouble,” Romney said, adding Obama had created a sense of uncertainty amid fraught debt-ceiling negotiations in Washington and wild swings in the stock market.
“They’re fearful but not panicked,” Romney said of Americans. “They’re discouraged, but not so frightened that they can’t move forward.”
During an evening visit to a local party fund-raiser in Des Moines, Romney said the United States was in crisis. “You’ve got a lot of people in this country that are hurting, that are suffering, because of his policies,” he said.