Romney, Opening Race, Presents Himself as the Candidate to Face Obama

 
STRATHAM, N.H. — Formally offering himself as a candidate for the presidency for a second time, Mitt Romney sought Thursday to look past the primary challenges of the next 12 months, portraying the choice for voters as one between himself and President Obama.
In a 25-minute speech at the windswept Bittersweet Farm in New Hampshire, Mr. Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, made no mention of his potential Republican rivals, focusing instead on what he called Mr. Obama’s failed economic policies. He blamed the president for high unemployment, rising gasoline prices, falling home values and a soaring national debt.
“Barack Obama has failed America,” Mr. Romney declared. “In the campaign to come, the American ideals of economic freedom and opportunity need a clear and unapologetic defense, and I intend to make it — because I have lived it.”
By Republican tradition, it should be Mr. Romney’s turn as the nominee. The party has a long history of picking a politician who has paid his dues on the campaign trail — losing, learning lessons and then running again. Mr. Romney’s speech on Thursday sounded like one he might eventually give at the party’s national convention next year.
With 17 months to go, Mr. Romney has emerged as the front-runner for the nomination after reassembling a powerful fund-raising apparatus and an extensive campaign operation.
But Mr. Romney’s potential Republican challengers have no intention of letting him anoint himself the party’s nominee. That fact that was made starkly clear on Thursday by sharp-edged comments from Sarah Palin and Rudolph W. Giuliani — both of whom are still mulling presidential runs — even as Mr. Romney was making his candidacy official.
Ms. Palin, the former governor of Alaska, criticized Mr. Romney’s Massachusetts health care plan as her One Nation bus tour headed toward the coastal town of Portsmouth, N.H., for a clambake on Thursday evening.
“In my opinion, any mandate coming from government is not a good thing,” Ms. Palin told reporters in Boston, taking aim at Mr. Romney’s past support for a requirement that individuals in Massachusetts buy health insurance.
Ms. Palin’s remarks — and even her presence in the state — were clearly intended to tweak Mr. Romney on his big day. Ms. Palin has said her bus tour is not meant to be political. But she arrived in New Hampshire a day earlier than expected and made her comments in time to be included in all of the stories about Mr. Romney’s speech.
Mr. Giuliani, who was in New Hampshire on Thursday to speak at a local Republican event, also took aim at Mr. Romney’s health care record, saying: “The reality is that Obamacare and Romneycare are almost exactly the same. I would think the best way to handle it is to say, ‘It was a terrible mistake and if I could do it over again, I wouldn’t do it.’ ”
Jon M. Huntsman Jr., the former governor of Utah, arrives this weekend for several days in New Hampshire. And Tim Pawlenty, the former governor of Minnesota, has said he will compete aggressively in New Hampshire.
The attacks by Ms. Palin and Mr. Giuliani highlight what many observers say is a central problem for Mr. Romney as he seeks the nod from Republicans: No matter what he says about the economy and jobs and foreign policy, his rivals have one response: that Mr. Romney was the inspiration for Mr. Obama’s health care plan.
In his speech, Mr. Romney barely mentioned the issue, saying only that he “hammered out a solution that took a bad situation and made it better — not perfect, but it was a state solution for a state problem.” That got no applause from the crowd of several hundred people who gathered for a chili cookout with Mr. Romney and his wife, Ann, before the announcement.
Instead, Mr. Romney and his aides hope to focus voter attention on the credentials they say make him the best choice for reversing the economic policies of Mr. Obama’s administration.
On Thursday, Mr. Romney accused Mr. Obama of failing to live up to the promise of economic recovery he made in his 2008 campaign. And he pledged, without hesitation, to repeal the president’s health care overhaul.
“We will return responsibility and authority to the states for dozens of government programs — and that begins with a complete repeal of Obamacare,” he said. “From my first day in office, my No. 1 job will be to see that America once again is No. 1 in job creation.”