Romney: Obama Has 'No Agenda' For Second Term
Mitt Romney campaigned in Florida on Friday, one of the swing states he is hoping to win on Election Day. Though Florida was among several states that saw a recent drop in its unemployment rate, Romney's pitch to voters their is that it is not at the pace of a "real recovery."
ARI SHAPIRO, BYLINE: I'm Ari Shapiro traveling with the Romney campaign in Daytona Beach, Florida. Ted Bickish and his wife Gina embody the two big problems at the center of Florida's economy. Ted lost his job when the economy collapsed. The only work he could find was in Virginia. They couldn't relocate because their house was underwater. And he couldn't afford to pass up the job either. So now...
TED BICKISH: Well, I go up there for about three weeks to a month at a time, and then I come home for a week.
GINA BICKISH: And we couldn't sell our house to move up there because of the...
BICKISH: We bought it in 2005.
BICKISH: It's the value is not as much as we could sell it for.
SHAPIRO: And you think Mitt Romney could make the situation better?
BICKISH: Oh, I know he could. There's no doubt in my mind. The man's a businessman. He knows how to get people back to work.
SHAPIRO: Yesterday, the bureau of labor statistics released state by state unemployment numbers. Florida was one of 41 states where the unemployment rate dropped in September. That list includes some other important swing states, too - Ohio, Nevada, Colorado, and Iowa. But Romney says this is not the pace of a real recovery. And he argued that the Obama administration has no plan to get things going.
MITT ROMNEY: No agenda for America. No agenda for a second term. It's a good thing they won't have a second term.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHEERS)
SHAPIRO: He obliquely referred to President Obama's new Romnesia line.
ROMNEY: They've been reduced to petty attacks and silly word games. Just watch it. The Obama campaign has become the incredible shrinking campaign.
SHAPIRO: Romney went through a list of what four more years under President Obama would entail. He said it'll mean higher taxes, lower wages and fewer jobs.
ROMNEY: We can endure 18 more days of the agenda of President Obama, but we cannot endure four more years, and that's why we're going to replace him in 18 days.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHEERS)
SHAPIRO: Paul Ryan joined his running mate for this nighttime rally at the water's edge.
PAUL RYAN: I just came in on town. I saw a lot of our Milwaukee-made Harleys running all around town here. We know how to build things in America.
SHAPIRO: It's Biketoberfest weekend here, so the city is roaring with motorcycles. The rally ended with fireworks exploding over the beach. The next time the public sees Romney, there will be fireworks of a different kind - as he meets President Obama for their final debate on Monday.
Ari Shapiro, NPR News, Daytona Beach, Florida.
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