Romney blasts Obama in Lorain

Mitt Romney visited Lorain today, a day after Barack Obama also came to Lorain County. For some strange reason, I wasn't invited to Obama's event. Romney's event was open to the public, and I was able to get there early for a good seat. About 350 people attended, on very short notice, and it was a standing room only crowd.

Romney spoke for about 20 minutes without the need for a teleprompter. His level of preparedness is obvious, having been honed from the experience of the 2008 race and the long primary battle of this campaign. Henry Gomez from the Plain Dealer reports on some of his more memorable remarks:

Romney's 18-minute speech also tackled issues familiar from his campaign stops leading up to last month's Republican primary in Ohio – a contest Romney won. He criticized Obama's "all of the above" energy plan by calling the approach a head-scratcher. 

"Oil and coal and natural gas have been hard hit under his administration," said Romney, winding up to a big applause line. 

"He's for all above the ground -- wind and solar." Romney closed his speech by casting himself as a business-savvy outsider. 

"I did not spend my life working in government, only four years as governor," said Romney, who ran for president in 2008 and for U.S. Senate in 1994. "I didn't inhale."

Some others that I found notable:

"This president wants to run on rhetoric. We will insist that he run on record."

"This president, by his own measures of success, has failed."

"You see this president, day in and day out, attacking success."

"This president thinks you can grow the economy by punishing people."

Romney wasn't my choice at the beginning of this campaign starting last fall, but I have found myself warming up to him since January. He certainly deals blows to Obama in a manner that John McCain refused to. Of course, you know that we will be seeing much more of him and Zero the Dull Blade in Ohio over the next seven months.

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