Brian Yaklyvich/CNN
Florida takes center stage in the presidential campaign Thursday, with President Barack Obama heading to Miami for Spanish-language network Univision's "Meet the Candidates" town hall meeting. Republican challenger Mitt Romney campaigns in Sarasota.
With 29 electoral votes, Florida is always a key state in presidential elections. Obama carried the state in 2008 after President George W. Bush narrowly won Florida twice.
Both candidates are also battling for the Latino vote, a particularly strong bloc in Florida. In the latest Gallup poll, registered Hispanic voters favor Obama over Romney 66 percent to 26 percent.
Romney, who will attend private fundraisers in Palm Beach after his Sarasota rally, took his turn at the Univision forum Wednesday.
He tackled the secretly taped video of remarks at a private fund-raising event during which he said 47 percent of the country was unlikely to support him and also took on the issue of illegal immigration.
Romney said he would not support a mass deportation of illegal immigrants.
"I believe people make their own choices as to whether they want to go home and that's what I mean by self-deportation," Romney said. "People decide if they want to go back to the country of their origin and get in line legally to be able to come to this country."
The audience seemed largely supportive, cheering his immigration remarks.
Romney also said he had "demonstrated my capacity to help the 100 percent" -- a clear reference to the videotaped comments that have dominated discussion of his campaign in recent days.
During that secretly recorded May 17 fundraiser, Romney said nearly half of the population believes they are entitled to government aid and will support Obama regardless of what he does or says.
"There are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent on government, who believe that, that they are victims, who believe that government has the responsibility to care for them. Who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing."
He also said he would "never convince" the 47 percent of Americans who pay no federal income tax "that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."
Throughout the day Wednesday, Romney and running mate Rep. Paul Ryan also sought to reshape the campaign narrative less than seven weeks before the November vote by accusing Obama of favoring wealth redistribution -- code for socialism among conservatives -- based on a 1998 video of the president as a state Senate candidate in Illinois.
"I think the trick is figuring out how do we structure government systems that pool resources and hence facilitate some redistribution -- because I actually believe in some redistribution, at least at a certain level to make sure that everybody's got a shot," Obama says in the clip, posted Tuesday on the Drudge Report.
America does not work by government making people dependent on government, Romney told a fund-raising event Wednesday in Atlanta, adding "that will kill the American entrepreneurship that's lifted our economy over the years."
"The question of this campaign is not who cares about the poor and the middle class? I do. He does," the former Massachusetts governor said to rising cheers. "The question is who can help the poor and the middle class? I can! He can't!"
The White House on Wednesday characterized the GOP attacks as an effort to divert attention from Romney's controversial remarks.
A flurry of polls this week showed Romney unable to make up ground on Obama and slipping behind in some key battleground states, including Virginia. A new CNN/ORC International survey on Wednesday showed Obama also holding a 52 percent to 44 percent lead in Romney's birth state of Michigan.
Another new poll showed the secretly recorded Romney comments had a moderately negative impact on registered voters so far.
The Gallup survey taken Tuesday showed 36 percent of registered voters indicated they would be less likely to vote for Romney after the videotapes were released, while 20 percent said they were more likely to vote for Romney and 43 percent said the comments made no difference.
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Copyright 2012 by CNN NewSource. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
20 Sep, 2012
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Source: http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/politics/Focus-on-Florida-as-campaign-rolls-on/-/1719386/16674668/-/mo948bz/-/index.html
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