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Dems on Romney Iowa win: “untrustworthy,” wrong on immigration

Posted Jan 5, 2012 by William March

Updated Jan 5, 2012 at 09:48 AM

In two news conference calls Wednesday, Democrats and President Barack Obama’s re-election team picked out Iowa winner Mitt Romney for criticism, calling him untrustworthy, out of the mainstream in his recently adopted issue positions, and wrong on the Dream Act on immigration.

Their response made it clear that regardless of Romney’s prospects in the coming New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries, the Democrats believe Romney is the candidate they’ll face after the probably-decisive Florida primary Jan. 31.

Obama campaign manager Jim Messina and political adviser David Axelrod held one conference call with reporters on Romney’s Iowa victory, saying despite his narrow win, the outcome shows lack of enthusiasm for Romney and distrust of him by the Republican base because of his inconsistency on issues.

Messina said Romney “received fewer votes and a smaller share of the vote” in Iowa than he did in 2008 after spending more than $4 million to “carpetbomb” the state with television ads.

The ads were mostly from a super PAC, or independent political action committee, that’s backing Romney. He contends he has no influence over the Restore Our Future PAC even though it’s staffed and supported financially by his backers.

Messina also said the Iowa turnout was lower than predicted, with no increase over the 2008 turnout. “The vaunted enthusiasm gap was nowhere to be found,” he said, referring to the idea that Republican voters are more enthusiastic about voting against Obama than Democrats are about voting to re-elect him.

Axelrod called Romney “the 25 percent man,” saying he’s been unable in polls or in Iowa to get much beyond support from a quarter of Republican voters.

He said that’s because of “the larger issue of credibility – he has positions on every issue, usually several. ... There’s a real sense that people don’t know where Gov Romney stands today or where he’ll stand tomorrow.”

“He entered (Iowa) as a weak frontrunner and he leaves it as a weak frontrunner,” Axelrod said.

Romney partisans responded that Romney’s win in Iowa was merely icing on the cake, because he hasn’t emphasized the state.

“We’ve said consistently that we only wanted to finish in the top three in Iowa—a few weeks ago, no one expected him to come in first,” said Romney campaign spokesman Ryan Matthews.

Until recently, Romney played down the Iowa caucuses, where large numbers of religious conservative voters were expected to lean more toward any of several of his opponents—Michelle Bachmann, Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum, who ended up in a near tie with Romney. Instead, Romney heavily emphasized New Hampshire, which neighbors his home state of Massachusetts. There, he’s expected to win by a commanding lead in the Jan. 10 primary.

In the last few weeks, however, Romney has sharply increased his campaign time and advertising in Iowa, increasing expectations of his performance there.

The national Democratic Party held another conference call with reporters to talk about the Dream Act, which would allow children of illegal immigrants who are serving in the military or attending college a pathway to citizenship. The call included a young Texas woman, an honors college graduate with a double major in biology and theology, whose parents brought her here at age 8 but who now fears deportation.

The Democrats clearly intend to make the act a big issue in Florida, with its huge Hispanic vote. They expressed outrage because, they contended, Romney called the act as “a handout,” even though that’s not exactly what he said.

In Iowa last weekend, Romney said in answer to a question from the audience at a campaign event that he would veto the act.

Asked in a television interview Tuesday whether that stance would alienate Hispanic voters and hand Florida to Obama, he said Hispanic voters want opportunity and good jobs, then added, “If they (Hispanic voters) want a president who is going to talk to them about a handout or more benefits for free, they got that guy. If they instead, want a president who understands the economy ... then I’m that person.”

The call noted that two of Romney’s most prominent Florida backers, U.S. Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, both Miami Cuban-Americans, support the Dream Act.

It featured Benita Veliz, 26, of San Antonio, who said her parents brought her to Texas for a summer vacation when she was 8.

“At the end of the summer my parents enrolled me into elementary school. I became an undocumented immigrant through no choice of my own,” she said.

She wanted to go to law school, but couldn’t practice law as an illegal immigrant, and has had trouble finding work other than odd jobs because of her immigration status despite her college degree, she said.

She called the “handout” reference insulting, and said, “I wasn’t looking for a handout then and I’m not looking for one now,” and that she and others like her are “only looking for equal opportunity to contribute to the well-being of the only country we know.”

She recalled seeing video of Romney with a young American woman starting a career and said, “I wonder what makes Mitt Romney think I’m so different from that girl.”