WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney is so sure that he’s moving into the White House after the November election that yesterday, he told President Obama to “start packing.”
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee chuckled when he delivered that confident message for Obama yesterday during an ABC News interview.
The candidate’s wife, Ann Romney, sounded just as self-assured when she also advised the Obamas to get ready to move.
”It’s Mitt’s time,” declared Ann Romney. “It’s our turn now.”
Mitt Romney explained that the president was on the way out because his “policies have not helped the American people.”
The former Massachusetts governor continued the critique of Obama’s policies: “They have not helped get jobs, they have not helped raise incomes and they’ve added trillions of dollars of debt.”
The Romney campaign even sent out a fund-raising letter that promised tickets to a “Presidential Inaugural Retreat” for donors who give $50,000 to become “founding members.”
“These donors will be invited to a special retreat with Governor Romney in late June in California and will have preferred status at the first Presidential Inaugural retreat as well as yet to be determined access at the Republican National Convention in Tampa in August,” the letter said.
Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul insisted the “inaugural retreat” referred to a “first retreat” and had nothing to do with the presidential inauguration in January 2013.
“This is confirmed by the fact that it’s scheduled for this summer,” she said.
Meanwile, in the war for female voters, Romney has made an all-out push to close the gap. He got some unexpected help last week from Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen, who bashed Romney’s wife for being a stay-at-home mom and having “never worked a day in her life.”
The crack spurred Democrats and Republicans to leap to Ann Romney’s defense, including Obama himself.
Ann Romney, who turned 63 yesterday, called the Rosen flap an “early birthday present.”
The Romney campaign marked her birthday with a Web video that celebrated her life as a daughter, wife and mother — a theme sure to resonate with women.
Meanwhile Republican leaders moved yesterday to shore up what is expected to be another critical block of voters, announcing a major expansion of its Latino outreach in battleground states.
“We all know the importance of reaching out to the Latino community,” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said yesterday. “Latinos are clamoring for change, and the Republican Party is here to offer them the change they’re looking for.”