Mitt Romney modulates economic message
A Romney aide downplayed the difference between Romney’s comments at the events, pointing out that Romney has repeatedly acknowledged that Obama didn’t cause the recession. “Barack Obama has failed America. When he took office, the economy was in recession. He made it worse. And he made it last longer,” Romney said in his announcement speech.
There are other examples of that — “Here at home, the president points out that he inherited an economic crisis. He did,” Romney said at a March dinner in New Hampshire — but not of Romney mentioning the role of previous administrations, as he did in California.Continue Reading
And Romney did continue to hammer Obama during that appearance, telling reporters that he planned to make Obama a one-term president because he hadn’t lowered the unemployment rate.
But his treatment of two similar places was markedly different. In both Allentown and in North Hollywood, the suffering businesses Romney chose to highlight had long, difficult histories — and each was closed for reasons that had, at best, tenuous connections to the Obama administration’s policies.
The Allentown factory was more than 100 years old when it was finally shuttered in 2010. But the plant had changed hands twice since 2005, with Allentown Metal Works purchasing it from BVI Precision Materials in 2008 after BVI went into foreclosure.
The mall’s troubles began with a 1994 earthquake, and attempts to rebuild it over nearly two decades have all failed. Most recently, in April, the developer defaulted on a loan and the site was foreclosed by New York-based iStar Financial — where Romney donor Jay Sugarman is the CEO.
The locations both have specific significance that led Romney’s advance team to pick them for one of the candidate’s rare news conferences. President Obama toured Allentown Metal Works in advance of a major speech selling his stimulus plan to revive the economy; in 1960, John F. Kennedy held a rally at the North Hollywood mall to hold up the then-bustling plaza as an example of American economic strength.
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