BOSTON — Mitt Romney hunkered down Sunday with top aides in New Hampshire, where he mapped out the final preparations for his appearance at the Republican National Convention and the final general-election sprint.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee also made the rounds Sunday on the television talk-show circuit via pretaped interviews, pushing back once again against President Obama’s campaign’s attempts to tie him to Rep. W. Todd Akin’s comments about “legitimate” rape and abortion.
He said women were guaranteed coverage under the universal health care law he signed in Massachusetts, which included an individual mandate, a provision conservatives abhor and were able to keep out of President Obama’s federal health care bill.
“I’m the guy who was able to get all the health care for all the women and men for my state,” Mr. Romney said in an interview aired on “Fox News Sunday.” “They were talking about it at the federal level. We actually did something, and we did it without cutting Medicare and without raising taxes.”
Mr. Romney kicked off the day by attending services with his wife, Ann, at the Mormon temple near the family’s vacation home in Wolfboro, N.H., and then huddled with his campaign team to work on the final details of the acceptance speech he is scheduled to deliver Thursday.
The address will mark the culmination of a six-year effort by Mr. Romney to do something that his father, George Romney, was unable to pull off 44 years ago: win the Republican nomination for president.
With polls showing him trailing Mr. Obama by a wide margin among female voters, Mr. Romney and his running mate, Paul Ryan, who plans to campaign Monday in his hometown of Janesville, Wis., have made a concentrated effort in recent days to reach out to women.
Mr. Romney told voters at a campaign stop Saturday in the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio, that his campaign is dedicated to strengthening the economy for both sexes.
“I want to speak to the women of America who have dreams, who begin businesses in their homes, who begin businesses out in the marketplace, who are working at various enterprises and companies. I want you to be successful,” Mr. Romney said. “Our campaign is about making it easier for entrepreneurs, women and men to start businesses, to grow businesses.”
The Romney campaign on Sunday also released a new television advertisement, turning Mr. Obama’s own words from the 2008 campaign against him.
The ad contrasts the Democrat’s criticism of Sen. John McCain’s plan to cut Medicare with his current support of reducing spending on the retiree health care program by more than $700 billion over the next decade.
“What would candidate Obama say about President Obama’s Medicare cuts?” the narrator asks. Then the ad jumps to old video footage of Mr. Obama saying, “It ain’t right.”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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