Yana Paskova for The New York Times
Mitt Romney addressed the crowd at a rally in Dayton, Ohio, on Saturday.
DAYTON,
Ohio — For the second time in a week, a man stood at town hall meeting
and urged Mitt Romney to brag about his altruism. The voter’s anecdote
of choice Saturday afternoon in Ohio was the time Mr. Romney shut down
his Boston-based private equity company and headed to New York to help
track down a colleague’s missing daughter.
“A couple of months ago they were attacking you for, I think, or one person did, the Bain Capital type of thing,” said the man. “But can we talk about the ad where the gentlemen who was your business partner from New York — you flew a company of 50 to New York to rescue his daughter. Can you tell that story?”
That story, in fact, was a large part of his 2008 presidential bid, when his campaign produced an ad around the tale. But Mr. Romney has not mentioned it this year, although a pro-Romney “super PAC” did re-air the old footage, prompting a mini-controversy.
“Uh, yes, I haven’t thought about that for a while, so let me see if I can get the facts straight,” Mr. Romney said, before launching into his re-telling.
Mr. Romney said that one of his partners, Robert Gay, came into his office at Bain Capital one day to say that his 15-year-old daughter had gone into New York City to attend a party without permission, and had never come home. She was lost, Mr. Romney remembered.
“And so I said, ‘Let’s close the firm, let’s close the company,’” Mr. Romney said. “’Let’s all of us fly down to New York and try to find her.’ And so we closed the business, we went home and packed our things, we got a hotel near the airport where we all went to, we set up a headquarters, we met with the detectives with the New York City Police Department, we hired a private investigative firm to help guide us through this process.”
At the time, Bain was an investor in Duane Reade, a major drug store chain, and Mr. Romney said they printed out fliers of the missing teenager, and had all the stores pass them out to customers, as well.
“And so there we were, a bunch of folks in suits walking around in the parks of New York and in the streets and showing pictures and saying when we saw teenagers, ‘Have you seen this girl?’” Mr. Romney said. “There were all these guys walking around asking kids if they’d seen a picture of this young lady, guys in suits and briefcases, and it made some big item in the news and we got a call into our hotline.”
They finally found her, Mr. Romney said, in a basement of a New Jersey home. As he finished his story, a murmur of approval rippled through the crowd.
At another point during the event, Mr. Romney wondered aloud “how in the world can the commander in chief sleep at night.”
Responding to the question of a mother whose daughter is serving abroad in the 82nd Airborne at Bagram Air Base, Mr. Romney laid into President Obama over his handling of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“One of things that I found most disturbing and hard to explain is how we can have our sons and daughters in conflict, risking their lives, and not have the president on a regular basis addressing the American people, describing what’s happening, describing what our mission is, describing what the goals will be, describing how much progress we’re making or whether there are setbacks and informing the people of America that there are other Americans making enormous sacrifice for our purposes and for our liberty,” Mr. Romney said. “The president needs to do that.”
In her question, the woman had explained that her daughter desperately wants to come home — “‘There is no mission here, we have no definition of a mission,’” she said, repeating her daughter’s words — and Mr. Romney echoed her concern.
“If your daughter is not familiar with the mission that she’s on, how in the world can the commander in chief sleep at night knowing that we have soldiers in harm’s way that don’t know exactly, precisely what it is that they’re doing there,” he said.
Mr. Romney, who has repeatedly criticized Mr. Obama for setting a withdrawal date based on what he says is political expediency rather than the facts on the ground, said that he understands why the country is in Afghanistan, but wants to bring the troops home “as soon as humanly possible, as soon as that mission is complete.”
“We’re going to finish the job of passing it off to them and bring our troops home as soon as humanly possible,” he concluded.
Romney Advisers Chide Santorum on Delegates
“A couple of months ago they were attacking you for, I think, or one person did, the Bain Capital type of thing,” said the man. “But can we talk about the ad where the gentlemen who was your business partner from New York — you flew a company of 50 to New York to rescue his daughter. Can you tell that story?”
That story, in fact, was a large part of his 2008 presidential bid, when his campaign produced an ad around the tale. But Mr. Romney has not mentioned it this year, although a pro-Romney “super PAC” did re-air the old footage, prompting a mini-controversy.
“Uh, yes, I haven’t thought about that for a while, so let me see if I can get the facts straight,” Mr. Romney said, before launching into his re-telling.
Mr. Romney said that one of his partners, Robert Gay, came into his office at Bain Capital one day to say that his 15-year-old daughter had gone into New York City to attend a party without permission, and had never come home. She was lost, Mr. Romney remembered.
“And so I said, ‘Let’s close the firm, let’s close the company,’” Mr. Romney said. “’Let’s all of us fly down to New York and try to find her.’ And so we closed the business, we went home and packed our things, we got a hotel near the airport where we all went to, we set up a headquarters, we met with the detectives with the New York City Police Department, we hired a private investigative firm to help guide us through this process.”
At the time, Bain was an investor in Duane Reade, a major drug store chain, and Mr. Romney said they printed out fliers of the missing teenager, and had all the stores pass them out to customers, as well.
“And so there we were, a bunch of folks in suits walking around in the parks of New York and in the streets and showing pictures and saying when we saw teenagers, ‘Have you seen this girl?’” Mr. Romney said. “There were all these guys walking around asking kids if they’d seen a picture of this young lady, guys in suits and briefcases, and it made some big item in the news and we got a call into our hotline.”
They finally found her, Mr. Romney said, in a basement of a New Jersey home. As he finished his story, a murmur of approval rippled through the crowd.
At another point during the event, Mr. Romney wondered aloud “how in the world can the commander in chief sleep at night.”
Responding to the question of a mother whose daughter is serving abroad in the 82nd Airborne at Bagram Air Base, Mr. Romney laid into President Obama over his handling of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“One of things that I found most disturbing and hard to explain is how we can have our sons and daughters in conflict, risking their lives, and not have the president on a regular basis addressing the American people, describing what’s happening, describing what our mission is, describing what the goals will be, describing how much progress we’re making or whether there are setbacks and informing the people of America that there are other Americans making enormous sacrifice for our purposes and for our liberty,” Mr. Romney said. “The president needs to do that.”
In her question, the woman had explained that her daughter desperately wants to come home — “‘There is no mission here, we have no definition of a mission,’” she said, repeating her daughter’s words — and Mr. Romney echoed her concern.
“If your daughter is not familiar with the mission that she’s on, how in the world can the commander in chief sleep at night knowing that we have soldiers in harm’s way that don’t know exactly, precisely what it is that they’re doing there,” he said.
Mr. Romney, who has repeatedly criticized Mr. Obama for setting a withdrawal date based on what he says is political expediency rather than the facts on the ground, said that he understands why the country is in Afghanistan, but wants to bring the troops home “as soon as humanly possible, as soon as that mission is complete.”
“We’re going to finish the job of passing it off to them and bring our troops home as soon as humanly possible,” he concluded.
Romney Advisers Chide Santorum on Delegates
DAYTON, Ohio — Mitt Romney’s
campaign has said from the very beginning that the Republican
nominating contest would likely be a long slog to get the 1,144
delegates needed to win the party’s nomination. And as the campaign made
clear in a conference call on Saturday afternoon, it believes that Rick Santorum made a crippling stumble going into Super Tuesday, the March 6 primaries in which 10 states are in play.
Though Mr. Santorum has a narrowing lead over Mr. Romney in Ohio polls, he failed to file the required paperwork in 3 of the state’s 16 Congressional districts to be eligible to win any delegates. And in 6 other districts there, he failed to file all of the required paperwork and is thus only eligible for some, but not all, of the districts’ delegates. In several of the districts, he filed for two delegates and one alternate instead of the normal slate of three delegates.
Ben Ginsberg, the chief counsel for the Romney campaign, said during the call that Mr. Santorum’s failure to assemble a full slate of delegates in Ohio — as well as his failure to get on the ballot at all in some other Super Tuesday states — “should give Republican voters great pause as we get ready to face President Obama.”
On Super Tuesday, 391 bound delegates are up for grabs. But Mr. Santorum will not be on the ballot in Virginia (with 46 delegates.)
“He’s failed to file a complete slate in Tennessee, he has failed to get on the ballot at all in the District of Columbia, and he’s failed in four of the upcoming Illinois Congressional Districts,” Mr. Ginsberg said. “So what that means is that basic organizational test that you’re going to have to have to battle President Obama is a test that Rick Santorum and his campaign have flunked.”
On the call, the Romney campaign sought to portray what it called the “delegate debacle” as not just a logistical challenge for Mr. Santorum, but also as a referendum on his ability to organize and take on President Obama in the November.
In a campaign memo that detailed the Super Tuesday delegate layout, Rich Beeson, Mr. Romney’s political director, again argued that Mr. Santorum “is simply not prepared to take on a Democrat machine that will raise and spend $1 billion dollars.”
“This is the same Obama operation that already has an enormous campaign operation and field staff in place in every target state,” he wrote in the e-mail. “The bottom line is the Santorum campaign goes into Super Tuesday severely hobbled by his lack of organization and planning and systemic problem will only continue to plague him through the rest of the primary calendar.”
Hogan Gidley, a spokesman for the Santorum campaign, said the Romney campaign “is just throwing another temper tantrum because they’re a little confused and frustrated as to why they can’t buy this election.
“I’m sure they thought that with all their establishment friends and all the Establishment money and with the handpicked establishment candidate, this campaign would really be a coronation for Mitt Romney,” he said. “But they’ve just never understood that this election is not about who has the most money – or who has the most infrastructure.”
Though Mr. Santorum has a narrowing lead over Mr. Romney in Ohio polls, he failed to file the required paperwork in 3 of the state’s 16 Congressional districts to be eligible to win any delegates. And in 6 other districts there, he failed to file all of the required paperwork and is thus only eligible for some, but not all, of the districts’ delegates. In several of the districts, he filed for two delegates and one alternate instead of the normal slate of three delegates.
Ben Ginsberg, the chief counsel for the Romney campaign, said during the call that Mr. Santorum’s failure to assemble a full slate of delegates in Ohio — as well as his failure to get on the ballot at all in some other Super Tuesday states — “should give Republican voters great pause as we get ready to face President Obama.”
On Super Tuesday, 391 bound delegates are up for grabs. But Mr. Santorum will not be on the ballot in Virginia (with 46 delegates.)
“He’s failed to file a complete slate in Tennessee, he has failed to get on the ballot at all in the District of Columbia, and he’s failed in four of the upcoming Illinois Congressional Districts,” Mr. Ginsberg said. “So what that means is that basic organizational test that you’re going to have to have to battle President Obama is a test that Rick Santorum and his campaign have flunked.”
On the call, the Romney campaign sought to portray what it called the “delegate debacle” as not just a logistical challenge for Mr. Santorum, but also as a referendum on his ability to organize and take on President Obama in the November.
In a campaign memo that detailed the Super Tuesday delegate layout, Rich Beeson, Mr. Romney’s political director, again argued that Mr. Santorum “is simply not prepared to take on a Democrat machine that will raise and spend $1 billion dollars.”
“This is the same Obama operation that already has an enormous campaign operation and field staff in place in every target state,” he wrote in the e-mail. “The bottom line is the Santorum campaign goes into Super Tuesday severely hobbled by his lack of organization and planning and systemic problem will only continue to plague him through the rest of the primary calendar.”
Hogan Gidley, a spokesman for the Santorum campaign, said the Romney campaign “is just throwing another temper tantrum because they’re a little confused and frustrated as to why they can’t buy this election.
“I’m sure they thought that with all their establishment friends and all the Establishment money and with the handpicked establishment candidate, this campaign would really be a coronation for Mitt Romney,” he said. “But they’ve just never understood that this election is not about who has the most money – or who has the most infrastructure.”
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