Over at Politico, Mike Allen is posting about a Mitt Romney speech in New Hampshire over the weekend in which the former Massachusetts governor tried to tackle the health care issue head on.
Romney’s advisers have struggled with how to tackle the touchy subject, especially since opposition to Obama’s health care law galvanized Republican victories last fall.
In his speech to a GOP crowd, Romney admitted his own state’s health care program “wasn’t perfect,” according to Politico and added this: “‘Some things worked, some things didn’t, and some things I’d change. … Our approach was a state plan intended to address problems that were in many ways unique to Massachusetts. … What we did there as Republicans and Democrats was what the Constitution intended for states to do — we were one of the laboratories of democracy. … One thing I would never do is to usurp the constitutional power of states with a one-size-fits-all federal takeover.”
Allen writes that Romney spoke with the aid of a teleprompter to about 300 conservative activists for the Carroll County Lincoln Day dinner, at an out-of-the-way ski resort. Consultants, warning that the issue could doom Romney’s candidacy, have urged him to give a speech addressing the issue straight on.
In a story with the headline “Romney seeks to address health care woes,” AP national political writer Liz Sidoti wrote: The Obama White House and its Democratic allies have made mischief recently by saying their unpopular health law was partly inspired by Romney’s in Massachusetts.
“You may have noticed that the president and his people spend more time talking about me and Massachusetts health care than ‘Entertainment Tonight’ spends talking about Charlie Sheen,” the ex-governor joked.
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