Romney seeks new thrust to presidential campaign

Mitt Romney sought to maintain his momentum in front of smaller crowds, celebrating US victories in the space race and wooing elderly and Hispanic voters after a weekend of super-sized events. Republican Romney unveiled Paul Ryan, a deficit hawk congressman, as his vice-presidential pick on Saturday and campaigned with him for two days before the pair divided their efforts and the ticket leader headed to Florida. In the coastal city of St. Augustine, the crowds lacked the electricity and numbers the pair drew in Virginia, North Carolina and Wisconsin before Ryan set off to Iowa to counter the effect of US President Barack Obama's visit there. "I'm counting on you to help me win in November," Romney told a few thousand people, many of them retirees, at Florida's Flagler College. He insisted the United States was still "the greatest nation on Earth." "We just landed on Mars and took a good look at what's going on there," he said, referring to the Curiosity Rover operated by US space agency NASA at a cost of some $2.5 billion. He also lauded America's 1960s missions to the moon and suggested that China, which plans to land a probe on the moon next year for the first time, "take a good look at our flag that was flown there 43 years ago." The comments were followed by an election pledge to rein in spending by getting rid of programs that are not crucial. It was not clear if this includes the space program, which employs thousands of people in Florida. Romney pivoted from space to the president's handling of the economy, alleging that Obama "promised everybody in this country the moon but he never got off the launch pad." He cited slumping housing prices, particularly in Florida, millions of home foreclosures, and the "moral failure" of having 23 million Americans out of work, with unemployment at a stubbornly high 8.3 percent. "Mr President, by your own measure you've failed to deliver the jobs Americans need," Romney said to cheers. "We're tired of being tired of this country." Romney was joined in St. Augustine, and then Miami, by Florida's freshman US Senator Marco Rubio, who continued the theme, branding November's election "a choice about our identity as a nation and as a people." Many believe Rubio had been on Romney's VP shortlist and, while the senator described Paul Ryan as "the next vice president of the United States," he did not dwell on the accomplishments of his rival. Instead he focused on the contrasts between the bloated deficits during Obama's presidency and Romney's bid to rein in federal spending. "Government is not the most important institute in society," Rubio said. "After all, what happens in your house is more important than what happens in the White House." Florida's many seniors put the state at the heart of swirling debate about entitlement programs like Medicare, the government health care program for retirees. Ryan, as part of his sweeping budget plan that slashes spending and lowers taxes, would overhaul Medicare by converting it to a voucher system that requires recipients to purchase health care on the open market. Democrats say the system will shred the 50-year-old safety net and leave seniors out of pocket. Romney expressed enthusiastic support for the Ryan budget shortly after it passed the House, but with Ryan emerging as the running mate and his controversial plan now front and center, Romney has made clear in recent days that he will be pushing a budget of his own. But in terms of Medicare he said there was no daylight between them. "My plan for Medicare is very similar for his plan for Medicare," Romney told a press conference in Miami. The candidate, accompanied by Rubio, then addressed a crowd, many of them Cuban-Americans like Rubio, at a juice shop. Romney and Rubio served juice to attendees after brief remarks. Several in the crowd sounded disappointed that Romney had not chosen as running mate their popular senator, someone who could have won over members of the Hispanic community, a key demographic which voted overwhelmingly for Obama in 2008. "I really liked Rubio as our VP," Margarita Montells, 75, told AFP. "I don't know who Paul Ryan is, but I'll support Romney even if I don't know his VP because we need to fire Obama." On Tuesday, Romney campaigns in Ohio while Ryan heads to Colorado and Nevada. All three are among roughly 10 swing states likely to decide the election. US voters go to the polls on November 6 top choose between Republican Romney and Democrat Obama, who is running for four more years in office.