Romney keeps focus on economy as he's about to clinch GOP nomination
(CBS News) Mitt Romney is set to clinch the Republican nomination for president on Tuesday, after the Texas primary finally gives him the necessary delegates.
With that milestone under his belt, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee this week will seek to drive home his chief attack against President Obama: That the president is hostile to job creators. In the meantime, he'll have to fend off criticisms from the Obama campaign for rubbing elbows with Donald Trump.
According to CBS News estimates, Romney is currently just 64 delegates short of the 1,144 needed to clinch the presidential nomination, and is expected to cross the threshold after the results come in for Tuesday's Texas primary. But instead of celebrating there, the candidate is campaigning in the swing states of Colorado and Nevada on Tuesday.
The campaign says it will focus this week on Mr. Obama's "abysmal economic policies harming job creation." It's released a web video illustrating their argument, focusing on Solyndra, a solar company that went bankrupt after receiving a $535 million in government-backed loan guarantees. The web ad slams the president for that failed investment, but a narrator says "that's not even half the story."
"Obama's Department of Energy has handed out billions of dollars in loans and grants," the narrator continues, while the ad points to other struggling green energy companies that received government-backed loan guarantees like First Solar and ECOtality.
In Colorado on Tuesday morning, Romney will continue to hammer Mr. Obama on energy and jobs, visiting the town of Craig, home of one of the largest coal-fueled power plants in the country.
Asked by Fox News what his main selling point as a presidential nominee is, Romney said in an interview that aired Tuesday morning, "I can make the economy better. I can get more jobs in America. I can get competition between employers for jobs, rising wages. I understand how the economy works."
Romney said that Mr. Obama, by contrast, "wants to make this a personal attack campaign. He's going after me as an individual."
Asked Monday whether Trump's "birther" association gave him pause, Romney told reporters, "You know, I don't agree with all the people who support me and my guess is they don't all agree with everything I believe in. But I need to get 50.1 percent or more, and I'm appreciative to have the help of a lot of good people."
Romney hasn't given any further comment on the matter, but his staff has said Romney has no question about the president's origins. "Mitt Romney accepts that President Obama was born in the United States," Romney's senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom said on CNN Friday.
