Denver, U.S.A. — “Mitt Romney is the architect of Obamacare,” said Jefferson George, president of the conservative tax-exempt group American Right To Life Action. “Romney has already implemented what Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton only dream of: homosexual marriage, tax-funded abortion on demand by health care reform with the individual mandate, robbing religious freedom from pro-life hospitals. The list is long. If anyone believed the ‘lesser of two evils’ con, they’d have to vote for Obama.”

“Strategists say that independents decide elections,” said Darrell Birkey, the ARTL research director overseeing the new RepublicansAgainstRomney.com website. “So the only way for pro-lifers to get candidates who won’t kill unborn children is to become independent enough to oppose liberal, pro-abortion, pro-homosexual politicians like Mitt Romney.”

Agreeing with ARTL is the longtime vice president of the nation’s first “right to life” group, Colorado Right To Life. “The Republicans Against Romney site documents that the excuses the campaign makes for Mitt’s anti-child, anti-free-market, anti-family actions are nothing but lies,” said Leslie Hanks. “Sadly, conservative talk show hosts lap it up and repeat the lies. This website even offers a$100 reward for corrections to errors of fact.”

According to the site, Romneycare is fundamentally a liberal, socialist program with its individual mandate that saps the federal treasury. Romney’s top consultants aided the development of Obamacare and put Planned Parenthood on the “health” committee that, from day one, offered $50 tax-subsidized abortion on demand. And still today Romney plans to nominate justices “like John Roberts,” who upheld Obamacare.

RepublicansAgainstRomney.com documents that Mitt Romney claimed to be pro-choice in 1994, pro-life in 2001, pro-choice in 2002, pro-life in 2004, pro-choice in 2005, pro-life in 2006 and then funded abortion in 2006. In 2012, he’s back to supporting abortion for “health reasons,” the loophole opened by the Supreme Court’s Doe v. Bolton opinion that allows all abortions, as in Colorado for example, throughout all nine months.

“And ironically,” adds Birkey, “the ’legitimate’ rape issue is Romney policy, not a Todd Akin policy. The congressman advocates protecting every child, but it’s Romney’s rape exception that requires determining whether or not there was a rape.”

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In the streets of downtown Tampa, dual preparations continue as the city braces for tropical Storm Issac and the Republican National Convention. Convention officials delayed the start of the events from Monday afternoon to Tuesday as a safety precaution. Issac is not projected to hit landfall in Tampa, but that will not stop massive amounts of rain and strong winds from shutting everything down for a day.

There is one thing, however, that will continue to work inside the Forum center and serves as a loud remainder of what this election is about. That item is a large clock keeping track of the amount of financial debt, added each second. Tampa may be worried about the impending storm of Issac, but the entire country is facing a debt storm that is bearing down on everyone like a category 5 hurricane.

The optic of the clock is a perfect anchor for one of the foundational fights that will be played out this presidential election. President Obama will fight to make this election about Romney’s taxes, women’s rights, and Paul Ryan’s Medicare plan. The President’s surrogates and spokespeople will attempt to distract voters away from the economy.

Thus far, they have done an excellent job of doing so. But, the fiscal cliff that the spending of the Obama administration has enacted is a problem that Romney must keep front and center in the campaign. Nothing does that better than the backdrop of a debt calculator displaying the massive bill the country is racking up.

This is a message that the republicans must take to heart as well. The last two weeks have seen the Romney camp get bogged down over Medicare and the comments of Senate candidate Todd Akin regarding rape and abortion. The economy and the debt are problems one and two. They cannot afford to get caught in the Obama trap of defending themselves and talking about things that have nothing to do with those issues.

Many in the media will play along with President Obama and will be all too willing to cover other issues. Optics is one way around this obstacle. Do not just talk, show. Judging by the large and ominous clock clicking up every second of the convention speakers’ speeches, the Romney campaign may be on their way to making this election about what it needs to be about.

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Most Hollywood stars usually support Democrats, but, like in everything in life, there are some exceptions: Clint Eastwood, Chuck Norris, Donald Trump and Kid Rock are all supporters of Mitt Romney’s campaign.

Clint Eastwood told Romney supporters in a Sun Valley fundraiser, “Now more than ever do we need Gov. Romney. I’m going to be voting for him.” In February, Eastwood told Fox News at the time that he was not affiliated with or supporting any politician. But now the ‘Mystic River’ director’s mind has changed.

Eastwood also said that he hoped Romney would be able to install a  “decent tax system that we need badly… so that there’s a fairness and people are not pitted against one another as who’s paying taxes and who isn’t.” Clint Eastwood has become a big supporter of Romney’s; he is arguably the most important celebrity in favor of the former Massachusetts Governor.

Former ‘Walker, Texas Ranger’ protagonist Chuck Norris has also shown his support for Mitt Romney. In an opinion article he stated “I believe that Mitt has the skills and organization to defeat Obama and stop his fundamental transformation of America. We all know what four more years of increased socialistic decisions would do to our country.”

Kid Rock is also doing campaigning in favor of Romney, the artist’s anthem ‘Born Free’ has become Romney’s official campaign song.

The famous Donald Trump has also endorsed Mitt Romney, “Mitt is tough. He is smart,” Trump said, with Romney at his side, at a brief announcement at a Las Vegas hotel bearing his name.

The ‘Apocalypse Now’ star Robert Duvall is also hosting a fundraiser for Romney in September. The National Journal has published on its site Duvall’s fundraising invitation at Middleburg, Virginia, in which the general reception will cost $2,500, a VIP photo reception at the entrance will cost $10,000, and a dinner will cost $25,000.

Another famous Hollywood celebrity that is supporting Mitt Romney is Jerry Bruckheimer, the film and TV producer, creator of ‘CSI’ and ‘Pirates of the Caribbean,’ who donated the maximum individual donation amount allowed to Romney’s campaign in March. Bruckheimer hasn’t always donated money to the Republicans, in the past he has used it to donate in favor of Democrats.

In 2008 President Obama had most celebrities’ support; Musicians like Will.I.Am produced viral campaign videos for him. In 2012 he still has most of the celebrity support, but Romney certainly has more celebrity power than McCain did. President Obama is still way ahead of Romney: he has recently dinned with George Clooney, exchanged quips with Spike Lee in a New York City townhouse and met with Lady Gaga in a fundraiser organized by Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, in which the singer, one of the few people that has more Twitter followers than Obama, paid the maximum campaign donation of $35,800 for access to the event.

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Who Mitt Romney’s running mate will be is still uncertain. Expectation levels are high because the elections are only a few months away. Republicans around the country know that this decision will be crucial in their aspirations of returning to the White House.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio has a serious chance of becoming Mitt Romney’s running mate. He would certainly help the Republican Party in their aspirations of regaining the Hispanic voter’s support, which currently favors the Democrats. Rubio served in the House of Representatives from 2000 to 2008 and was elected as a Senator in 2010. Senator Rubio’s political skills, which include a fluent Spanish and high popularity among  Hispanics, would definitely help Mitt Romney to win states with high Hispanic population like Florida, New Mexico and Arizona. 

Ana Navarro, a Politico columnist, referred to Senator Rubio as the anti-Palin. She explained that the population of Alaska during Sarah Palin time as a governor was of 700,000, on the other hand, Senator Rubio represents a state of more than 19 million people, Florida is also a state with a variety of cultures in which practically every U.S. demographic group is represented.

Condoleezza Rice is another name that has appeared as a possible candidate for the vice-presidency. The Former Secretary of State will surely be able to help Romney in foreign issues.  But Condoleezza Rice’s deep involvement in George W. Bush government might not help her because of the bad public image that Bush government has in these days. Also, the fact that Rice is not married doesn’t make her an ideal candidate to the most conservative base of the Republican Party.

Ohio Senator Rob Portman also has great possibilities. He is the Senator of Ohio, one of the swing states that could determine this election. He was elected in 2010; he won with a margin of 57 to 39 percent, winning 82 of Ohio’s 88 counties. His campaign focused on common-sense conservative ideas to help create jobs and get the deficit under control. He helped Romney in the victory against Santorum in the Ohio primaries and the public opinion sees him as a safe pick.

Republican strategist Mark Weaver said that Senator Portman’s organization level in Ohio is very deep and he also “has so many people that are committed to helping him that would all come the way of Mitt Romney.  And in a close state like Ohio, the difference of having someone like Portman on the ticket could be the win.”

Another possible vice-presidential candidate is Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal; he recently referred to President Obama as “the most liberal, most incompetent President in the White House since Jimmy Carter.”  Governor Jindal also responded to President Obama’s declaration that the private sector was doing fine by saying: “The private sector is not doing well when 23 million Americans are unemployed and underemployed in this great country. This president, the private sector is so foreign to him he might need a passport to actually go visit and he might need a translator to help him talk to folks in the private sector.”

Governor Jindal supported Texas Governor Rick Perry in the Republican primaries; he started supporting Mitt Romney until Rick Santorum dropped on April 10. This particular aspect could be taken into account by Romney and does not benefit Jindal at all, because it is clear that Governor Jindal preferred Governor Perry as the Republican candidate, but still Bobby Jindal would have his chances because he is considered one of the rising stars of the Republican Party.

These were just some of the names of possible vice-presidential candidates. There are many more, like New Jersey Governor Chris Christie or the former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. Who knows if there might be a surprise in Romney’s nomination, like there was in the 2008 election when John McCain announced Sarah Palin as his running mate?

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The battle for money has started, and Republicans and Democrats are already working on their fundraising. In the last two months the Republican Party has collected more money than the Democrat Party, but November is still far away, so things could change during these new few months.

Fundraising is crucial to win an election and President Obama knows it; in the 2008 election, according to the Federal Election Commission, he raised $ 778,642,962. Meanwhile, his opponent John McCain raised $383,913,834.And the result is well known: Barack Obama became President of the United States.

The 2012 electoral campaign is telling  us a complete different story than the 2008 campaign. The Republican Party is raising considerable amounts of money. In June they broke their record, when they announced raising $106 million for Mitt Romney’s campaign and the Republican National Committee. Barack Obama’s campaign has just announced that they raised $71 million in June.

The Democratic Party has indeed faced difficulties in financing the Obama campaign. In May, Mitt Romney raised nearly $77 million, compared to Obama’s $60 million for the same month. It is a complicated scenario for the Democratic Party and if things continue there is a strong possibility the Republicans will end up raising close to one billion dollars for their presidential campaign.

The Obama campaign manager Jim Messina, recently said in an announcement: “If we don’t take this seriously now, we risk finding ourselves at a point where there is too much ground to make up.”

In a recent video, Jim Messina tried to encourage  people to donate. In the video he assured viewers that 1.3 million people have already donated and explained that during the last quarter they had more than 200,000 new donors. Another statistic he gave is that 98% of all donations were $250 or less and that the average donation was about $55. He also expressed that money is needed in order to build the kind of grass roots campaign that they will need in November.

The aim of this video is to prove the support the Democrats have nationwide and to demonstrate that their money comes from the people, who give little money but at the end it sums a lot, and that is were the Democrat Party strength comes from. Messina criticized the way the Republican Party is raising money and said that “last week, the Republican Party filed a court brief, asking the corporations be allowed to contribute directly to campaigns” to prove that, rather than the people, the Republican Party donors are the big corporations.

The Democratic Convention is near and they are looking for funds to host it, with their goal being $37 million. In the 2008 Convention they raised $61 million, but this time around they are having problems raising enough. This is unlike the Republicans, who do not seem to have any trouble  in raising their $55 million goal for their Convention in Tampa.

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“If I’m fortunate enough to become the next president, it is my expectation that Fidel Castro will finally be taken off this planet,” Mitt Romney told to a group of Cuban exiled and political leaders in Miami on January. With this short sentence he showed the world that he is not willing to conceive of Cuba as a friend, as long as Raul and Fidel Castro are still alive.

It seems that Mitt Romney dreams of a free Cuba and is willing to make his dream come true. He also wants to be everything Obama isn’t, so in the Cuba issue he would follow the same plan. If Obama, at the beginning of his presidency, adopted an appeasement strategy, Romney in his campaign assured he would harden the sanctions against Cuba if he is elected president. His plans are clear: the embargo would come to an end when Cuba is free, and free means with the Castro’s out of sight. It is clear that he wants the Cuban community’s support for presidential election.

But in these hard economic times, this strategy may not attract as many Cuban voters as he expects. Cubans are decisive in a crucial state like Florida. Most politicians try to gain their support by criticizing Castro, because most of their ancestors escaped the island when the Castro regime started in 1959. But in this period of crisis, most Cuban voters just think about the economy as their priority. Maybe in a time of prosperity, the priority of the Cuban voters will be the position of the presidential candidate over their country, but not in these hard times.

But Mitt Romney has bigger plans than the Cuban community support. He wants the entire Latin community support; he reassured citizens that he is interested in Latin American issues and clearly expressed the route that he will follow, referring to the relations with the different Latin American governments, if he is elected president. Romney believes that Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela and declared enemy of the United States,  and Fidel  Castro are serious threats for the United States.

That leaves the country members of ALBA (The Bolivian Alliance for the People of Our America), an alliance proposed by Chavez as an alternative to the FTA (Free Trade Area of the Americas, proposed by the United States) without hope of having good relations with the United States in the nearby future.

But Romney may not be the biggest threat toward Chavez. His real enemy is his sickness.Although president Chavez real health condition is a mystery; the fact is, he hasn’t been present in Venezuela during the last months, and it is very difficult to run a country and win an election just by Twitter. Chavez’s health will be a crucial issue during the next months because it will condition the relationship between the United States and Latin America. Also, if Venezuela falls, it is almost certain that Cuba would fall, because Venezuela is the country’s stronger economic supporter.

The future of the United States and Latin America is a mystery. We still have many questions without an answer, like if Romney would be elected president or if Chavez’ health would make him able to compete in the October elections against Henrique Capriles. All these answers are crucial and would determine the future of the continent.

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Likely Republican nominee Mitt Romney has opened a six-point lead (46%-40%) over President Barack Obama in Virginia, according to The Roanoke College Poll.

The two were statistically tied in the College’s February poll. Republican George Allen maintains an eight-point lead (44%-36%) on Democrat Tim Kaine in the likely November matchup for the U.S. Senate seat from Virginia. The margin is unchanged from last month.

The Roanoke College Poll interviewed 603 Virginia residents between March 24 and April 5 and has a margin of error of +/-4%. Screening for registered voters (N=537) reduces Allen’s lead to seven points (46%-39%) and Romney’s lead to five points (46%-41%).

“While Mitt Romney fares well in the top-line numbers of this poll, looking beneath the surface suggests that his position is somewhat precarious,” said Harry Wilson, director of the Institute for Policy and Opinion Research.

“The commitment of his supporters lags significantly behind the commitment of President Obama’s supporters in several areas. While his lead over Obama has widened in a month, his favorable/unfavorable numbers and the fact that Virginians think Obama better understands their needs do not bode well for the likely Republican nominee.”

“The Allen/Kaine race has not changed since the last Roanoke College Poll. It is also interesting that Kaine is actually winning among Virginians with the highest income.”

“The results of this poll indicate a very high level of dissatisfaction on the part of Virginians. Approval of Obama and McDonnell and Congress are all down slightly, and perceptions of the state and the country have declined as well.

Both Presidential candidates have higher unfavorable than favorable ratings. Virginians are a disgruntled group right now.”

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Mitt Romney has been, and continues to be, the candidate to beat for the Republican nomination. He has come under fire from every other nomination contender, as well as from the Obama campaign on the left. He is criticized for being “out of touch” with the middle class, as well as for shutting down companies and eliminating jobs under Bain Capital, the private equity firm which he used to run.

His fortune, which is somewhere between 190 million and 250 million, makes him one of the wealthiest men to run for office in recent times. He has described the amount that he made from speaking engagements as “Not very much.” This amount is revealed to be $374,327, an amount that, well into the six figures, is far higher than the income of the average American.

Criticized by opponents for not releasing his tax forms, Romney is beginning to succumb, admitting to paying somewhere near 15% in his taxes. This percentage means that most of Romney’s income is from investments, as opposed to from ordinary income, which is taxable by up to 35%.

This makes him one of the 200,000 millionaires who pay less in taxes than the average person who makes over 100,000 dollars a year. According to the Christian Science Monitor, if some of his Republican opponents had their way, Mr. Romney would be paying even less in taxes.

Coincidentally, Mitt Romney opposes the Buffett Rule, also known as the Millionaire’s Tax, which would increase the minimum tax rate paid by millionaires, ensuring that they pay at least the same percentage that middle class income families do. According to the New York Times, any time he is asked about taxes being raised on the wealthy, Romney deflects the question, insisting that the size of our government must be shrunk.

The bigger issue may be that the IRS values investments more than it does ordinary income. Regardless, the current tax rates make it so that those who make many times over the average income, such as Mr. Romney,  have to pay a much lower percentage in taxes than a middle class family.

Furthermore, Mr. Romney negotiated a retirement deal with Bain Capital that provides him with a substantial share every year. This will be even more income that will not fall under ordinary income, and so therefore only 15% percent will be subject to taxation. As a candidate, Romney has advocated policies that would continue to benefit people like him whose income comes mainly from investments.

Mr. Romney will perhaps be continued to be seen as out of touch, and these recent revelations will doubtlessly be unhelpful to his candidacy.

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Another intense GOP debate took place in Las Vegas, Nevada, that aimed at giving the nation another opportunity to get to know the candidates and their positions on certain topics. Throughout the night, finger-pointing was prevalent, especially surrounding the topic of illegal immigration.

As in past debates, illegal immigration was a significant topic of focus, but it was not only directed at Rick Perry.  Instead, every candidate got a chance to voice their opinion.  Perry has faced criticism over his previous policies on immigration, such as putting in place “magnets” that attract illegal immigrants.

During the Las Vegas debate, Perry turned the attention over to Romney’s lack of enforcement on illegal immigration.  He started quite a quarrel when he brought up Romney’s personal record on the subject. He stated, “Mitt, you lose all of your standing, from my perspective, because you hired illegals in your home, and you knew about it for a year.

And the idea that you stand here before us and talk about how you’re strong on immigration is, on its face, the height of hypocrisy.”  Romney responded that his lawn care service had illegal immigrants working for them, but were let go once he found out. Romney also proposed, as president, to set up an E-Verify System in which employers must check if their workers are legal and if their documents are real.

The other candidates have also had responses to immigration that have been voiced over the past few weeks, one being Herman Cain’s “electric fence” idea.  Herman Cain, who is now taking the lead in many polls, was asked about his idea of building an electric fence along the entire border of Mexico.

While receiving a few laughs, he responded, “Allow me to give a serious answer. Yes, I believe we should secure the border for real, and it would be a combination of a fence, technology, as well as possibly boots on the ground, for some of the more dangerous areas.”

Michele Bachmann also agreed with the idea of a fence and was the first candidate to sign a pledge that would build a double-wedged fence across the border. Rick Perry is opposed to building a fence in his home state of Texas, because he has explained that it would take 10-15 years as well as $30 billion.

Bachmann pointed out the long-term solution of spending money to build a fence now, instead of continuing to have an open border, by stating, “Every year, it costs this country $113 billion in the costs that we put out to pay for illegal aliens. It costs the state and local government of that amount $82 billion.”

Ron Paul also responded to border patrol and illegal immigration by saying that the border lacks resources because they are instead being utilized overseas. “We worry more about the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.  We need to bring the guard units home and the units back here, so we can have more personnel on our borders.”

Immigration continues to be a topic of debate as well as an issue the entire country faces, but what the nation thinks about each candidate’s plans is still to come.

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Mitt Romney made his first major foreign policy address at the Citadel Military Academy last Friday, which tackled the threats to the country’s security and how he is planning to solve them. His foreign policy plan includes taking eight steps in his first 100 days in office as well as believing in the “American Century.”

Mitt Romney didn’t hold back as he discussed the threats facing America including President Obama’s shortcomings in his foreign policy. Critizing President Obama for ‘massive defense cuts,’ Romney stated, “I will not surrender America’s role in the world, this is very simple if you do not want America to be the strongest nation on earth, I’m not your president.

You have that president today.” On day one in office, Romney proposed to focus on rebuilding the economy, reverse massive defense cuts, and not weaken America’s military. Romney concentrated on the threats that the United States currently faces and potentially faces in the future.

The international threats included discussing a powerful nuclear Iran against the United States and the Taliban gaining power in Afghanistan again. He also included a vital issue directly facing America which is the Mexican border and the drug cartels in the region in combination with the failure to secure the border.

With these problems come solutions, and according to Romney the solution to a safer world is to make America the strongest nation in the world. He states, “God did not create this country to be a nation of followers. America is not destined to be one of several equally balanced global powers.

America must lead the world, or someone else will.” His plan to make America the strongest country in the world includes the eight steps he will take his first 100 days in office. The steps include the construction of a bigger Navy, which involves increasing ship building from 9 to 15 ships a year.

He aims to strengthen relationships with allies including Mexico and Israel. He also states he will enhance deterrents against Iran, commit to a robust national missile defense system, and use soft power resources in the Middle East. He plans on launching a campaign for economic opportunity in Latin America and conducting a full review of transition in Afghanistan.

Lastly he hopes to order interagency initiative on cyber security. Some people have commented that Mitt Romney’s foreign policy stance resembles that of former George W. Bush’s. Romney did an effective job at addressing the threats that face the country, where the Obama administration has lacked effective solutions, and the steps he plans on taking once in office.

With an attempted terrorist plot against the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to Washington by two Iranian men, just days after Romney’s speech, there seems to be justification for Romney’s forceful policies on terror prevention and America’s security.

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The rift between Republican candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Perry seems to widen. The Romney campaign stated on Wednesday that they have considered Perry’s idea about allowing states to run social security. “We reject turning the program over to the states,” Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom told The Huffington Post in an email.

The Romney campaign issued six detailed questions for the Perry campaign about how a state level social security program would run. Gail Gitcho, communications director for Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, said Perry wants to “dismantle” Social Security.

“He has refused to answer questions on what the Social Security program would look like at the state level,” Gitcho said in the campaign’s release. “Governor Perry has the opportunity to clarify his proposal while he is in Florida — a state with an extraordinarily high number of retirees and near retirees.” The six questions take Perry’s idea seriously, raising logistical issues about the change.

Some of the questions include,  ”Would individuals retain national Social Security numbers or would each state administer its own system?”  or “What would happen to the Trust Fund that accrued while the [federal] system was in surplus? … How would those funds be equitably allocated to the states?”

A Perry campaign spokesman has not yet responded to a request for comment Wednesday. Although Romney also does not have any specific plan for social security, he has offered more details than Perry. In his 2010 book, “No Apology: The Case for American Greatness,” Romney said he would consider raising the retirement age at which Americans become eligible for Social Security, with exceptions for those physically unable to work.

He also said he would be willing to reduce benefits for “high-income individuals” by using the consumer price index rather than the wage index to determine payouts, and to give younger workers the option to “direct a portion of their Social Security tax to a private account.”

Perry has called social security a “Ponzi scheme” and a “monstrous lie.” These bold statements have won him some fans with members of the conservative grassroots. But, these statements have also opened him up for criticism nationally.

Romney’s campaign has tried to go after the substance of Perry’s past comments about moving the program to the state level and the questions about Social Security’s constitutionality that Perry raised in his 2010 book, “Fed Up.” The two will meet again in a scheduled GOP debate on Thursday in Florida.

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Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has launched his own jobs plan ahead of the president’s address to the nation on Thursday. On Tuesday, Romney detailed his 59 specific proposals to improve the nation’s economy and create jobs.

“At best, government can provide a framework in which economic growth can occur. All too often, however, government gets in the way,” Romney wrote in an opinion piece in USA Today that previewed his 160-page plan. “The past three years of unparalleled government expansion have retaught that lesson all too well.”

Romney’s plan, no surprise, includes lowering the tax rate for corporations to encourage more corporations to keep profits in the U.S. This comes just weeks after Romney stated that “corporations are people.” Romney also proposes to eliminate tax on interests, capital gains and dividends. Romney’s campaign stated that these proposals specifically target middle class Americans, however few middle class Americans pay those types of taxes.

Romney criticized Obama for expanding federal regulations. He announced a proposal to ensure that new regulations at government agencies do not cost money. If a new set of rules raises costs for businesses, Romney would require that a different set of regulations be eliminated.

“I have spent most of my career in the private sector starting new businesses and turning around ailing ones. Unlike career politicians who’ve never met a payroll, I know why jobs come and go,” Romney wrote in USA Today, again a jab at Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who has held public office since he was elected as a Texas state representative in 1985.

Democrats criticized Romney’s plan, even before he rolled it out. Brad Woodhouse, a spokesman for the Democratic Party, said: “Mitt Romney has promised an economic plan that is bold and sweeping. But if the past months have shown anything, what Americans are really likely to get is more of the same tired rhetoric and worn out ideas which have failed America in the past.”

Although there is nothing new or different in this plan (lower taxes, reduce regulations), at least Romney is proposing something. The Republican Party in general has not offered any real solutions to the economy. The Republicans are known as the “Party of No” for a reason.

They are quick to criticize the president, congress and everyone else without suggesting any alternatives. Of course, the hocus pocus magic of lowering taxes and reducing regulations does not help the economy (see: George W. Bush’s 8 years) but  Mittens is trying to set himself apart in the crowded GOP field.

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As Rick Perry’s campaign gains momentum, a jittery Mitt Romney has attempted to target the issue most likely to be his opponent’s weakness: immigration.

Speaking to Republican Hispanics in Tampa, Romney said that “we must stop providing the incentives that promote illegal immigration.” He reminded his audience that, as governor, he vetoed legislation to provide in-state tuition to illegal immigrants and worked to make it easier for state troopers to enforce immigration laws.

Although Romney did not mention Perry by name, it was clear he had the Texas governor in his sights. In 2001, Perry signed a version of the “Dream Act” that allowed illegal aliens to obtain in-state tuition. And although he calls for a crackdown on illegal immigration, he shows little enthusiasm for Arizona-style legislation.

The issue of illegal immigration has become a hot button issue for the GOP in recent years, which presents the party with something of a problem as they attempt to woo Hispanic voters. In the run-up to the last election, Mitt Romney took a hard line on immigration and, as a result, he won just nine percent of Florida’s Cuban vote and twenty-one percent of the non-Cuban Hispanic vote in the Florida Republican primary.

In recent remarks to the Republican National Hispanic Assembly, Romney said that he was “a great proponent of legal immigration.” “Many of you are living proof of the unique strength of America that is constantly renewed by new Americans,” he added.

Romney’s attack comes as a recent poll by Magellan Strategies shows Perry with a five-point advantage among Republicans in Nevada, a state that backed Romney in the last election. Romney has also come under sustained attack from certain elements of the Tea Party.

Many Tea Partiers view him as ideologically suspect because he signed Massachusetts’ 2006 health care reform, a law that provided inspiration for President Obama’s own health care reforms. Consequently, some of their activists have taken to protesting Romney’s attendance at conservative functions and are actively working to undermine his campaign in battleground states.

However, this opposition has set off something of an internal struggle within the Tea Party movement, as many local groups object to the idea of outsiders coming in and telling them who to support.

In a belated bid to court Tea Party votes, Romney will address some of its members in New Hampshire on Sunday, September 4. The next day, he will take part in gathering hosted by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), a prominent supporter of the Tea Party.

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