Romney connects with conservatives

As 62-year-old Larry Elton waited Saturday for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney to make his appearance at Paseo Verde Library in Henderson, he made a prediction: "The 2008 presidential election will be a dogfight that will make anything Michael Vick did look like a birthday party for 4-year-olds."

A longtime Republican and self-employed businessman in the eyeglass industry, Elton said he was on hand to see if the former Massachusetts governor had the ''cojones to take on Hillary Clinton," whom he believes will easily win the Democratic nomination for president.

"Politics has become a blood sport, and nobody is better at it than the Clintons," Elton said. "Remember how the (President Bill) Clinton advisers smeared all those women that had been involved with him -- dug up dirt on them, saying they came from trailer parks and couldn't be believed.

"I believe the presidential election will be meaner and more vicious than ever before. I don't know whether Romney can handle that."

There was no doubt Saturday that Romney, casually dressed in khakis, an open- necked sport shirt and loafers, could handle the conservative audience of more than 200 on hand.

He received loud applause when he said that as president he would cut federal funds to states that issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, give college tuition discounts to children of illegal immigrants or provide sanctuary to undocumented workers.

With most of the Republicans in the audience never having seen him before, Romney, 60, didn't stick just to conservative hot-button issues in an attempt to make a connection.

Humor was sprinkled throughout the town hall meeting with the timing of a comedian working a Strip casino. So were expressions such as "gosh" and "my goodness."

The father of five boys who married his high school sweetheart, Romney remarked that when he decided to run for president he asked his wife if "in her wildest dreams" she ever thought he would be running for president: "She said, 'Mitt, you weren't in my wildest dreams.'"

Romney said it is imperative for the United States, which he said fights on behalf of freedom around the world, to build up its military.

He proposes placing 100,000 more soldiers on active duty and increasing spending on defense and veterans by as much as $40 billion a year.

Too many Americans are uninsured, Romney said. He favors allowing states to come up with their own solutions, much as he did in Massachusetts. There, Romney said, he was able to use the private sector to make health insurance available to everyone.

He quoted political satirist P.J. O'Rourke when dismissing the idea of universal health care provided by the federal government: "If you think health care is expensive now, just wait until it is free."

Romney said it is critical that American industry become more competitive now that China and India are becoming economic powers. Those countries will be far more difficult to deal with than Europe, he said.

"We know how to compete with our European friends," he said. "They're like us. They like a short work week and long vacations."

Tax cuts for industry, coupled with energy independence for the United States, Romney said, would go a long way toward making the country more competitive. Far more money must be spent on research into all forms of energy, he said.

After his town hall meeting, Romney met with volunteers at the Doubletree Club Las Vegas Airport motel. One volunteer offered that during a phone call, a potential voter said she wanted to vote for Ronald Reagan.

That was fine, Romney said, "Tell her Reagan is spelled, R-O-M-N-E-Y."

Las Vegas attorney Michael Wixom was one of the volunteers present. Romney "has a lot of charisma," Wixom said.

Larry Elton isn't sure the charisma is enough for the man who is shown in most polls to be trailing Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani in Nevada.

"Romney keeps saying that when he was governor of Massachusetts he could work with the Democrats to get things done," Elton said.

"That's the same thing George Bush said he did in Texas, but the Democrats had him for lunch. What I'm hearing is deja vu all over again. I need to see that he knows how to use power, to be tough."

Elton, who was accompanied by his 19-year-old daughter, Diane, wasn't convinced by Romney's performance that he could ever make the White House.

"He comes across as a great guy with a lot of charisma," Elton said. "But he's going to have to be a tough SOB to beat Hillary. I don't see any indication that he's ready to get down and dirty the way she will."

Contact reporter Paul Harasim at pharasim @reviewjournal.com or (702) 387-2908.