Romney fires up large crowd in Bettendorf

BETTENDORF, Iowa - Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, exalting the power of the individual, accused President Barack Obama of substituting government for freedom in a speech Wednesday at Bettendorf's LeClaire Manufacturing.

Romney was making his fifth trip to the state this year, a week to the day after the president traveled to Davenport to cap a three-day bus trip across Iowa.

Romney, who will accept his party's presidential nomination at the GOP convention in Tampa, Fla., next week, cited individuals such as Lech Walesa and Rosa Parks - as well as American businesspeople and workers who he says built the country's economy - in praising the power of the person.

He said the president has lost sight of that.

“It is free men and women who drive our economy,” Romney said. “President Obama, bless his heart, has tried to substitute government for free people, and it has not worked, and it will never work.”

“We will return freedom and get America growing again,” he added.

The Romney campaign estimated the crowd at about 1,600 people, and they were enthusiastic as Romney pledged to expand home-grown energy, reform education, boost trade, cut the debt and champion small business by keeping their taxes low and getting regulators to encourage them.

The Republican's campaign also continued to seize on the president's “you didn't build that” remark made during a stop in Virginia last month.

Rob Zimmerman, co-president with his brother of LeClaire Manufacturing and who introduced Romney, called the statement “insulting.”

The stage where Romney appeared also had a background with the words “We Did Build It,” written in large letters.

The president's campaign has said he was referring to the country's system of roads and bridges when he said businesses “didn't build that,” and it has pointed to independent fact checkers who say Romney has distorted the remark.

Romney's speech was briefly interrupted when a person in the audience apparently tried to ask a question. He and two others with a banner were led out to chants of “USA, USA” by the rest of the crowd. The man is employed by Sensata Technologies of Freeport, Ill., a company Bain Capital bought about a year ago that it is closing. Workers there have tried to get Romney, who left Bain before it acquired Sensata, to intervene.

The Romney visit to the Quad-Cities is just the latest in a fierce contest between the Republican and the president's camp for Iowa's six electoral votes.

Romney urged people in the crowd Wednesday to reach out to people who backed Obama in 2008 and get them to vote for him November.

“Remind them how disappointing it's been over these past 3 1/2-4 years,” he said.

He also appeared to reach out to young people, arguing the best way to help them is to help the economy and cut the debt.

“It is not investing in people to max out their credit card for them,” he said.

Obama won Iowa four years ago by nearly 10 percentage points, drawing Republicans and independents to his column, as well winning Democrats. He even won the traditionally conservative city of Bettendorf. However, Republicans have more recently gained a registration edge statewide, erasing a Democratic lead. And polls have said the two candidates are running fairly evenly in the state.

Romney's camp is hoping to cut into Obama's support in eastern Iowa, which traditionally has leaned Democratic.

The president's campaign didn't sit idly by watching Wednesday's event. The campaign sought to upstage the Romney appearance by announcing just before it began that Obama would make two campaign stops in Iowa next week. One will be in Ames. The other will be in Des Moines.

Lis Smith, an Obama spokeswoman, said a Romney-Ryan White House would mean higher taxes on middle-income families, turning Medicare into a voucher program, increasing health-care costs and an economic policy that could push the country back into recession.

“This isn't a recipe for strength; it's the same failed formula that crashed the economy and devastated the middle class in the first place,” she said.

The campaigns also continued their on-air sparring Wednesday.

The Obama campaign put up a new television ad that hit Romney for cuts in the House budget drafted by his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan. The ad suggests that the cuts would make school class sizes bigger and that Romney supports that.

The Romney team, meanwhile, was pressing its criticism of the president on the health-care law, putting up a new spot saying the law includes taxes on medical devices such as wheelchairs and pacemakers.