Rows of green crops and country rock songs set the scene for the 10,000 people gathered in a rustic farm today for a rally held by presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and his running mate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.).
In their first campaign trip to Michigan as a duo, Romney and Ryan spoke in front of a barn at the Long Family Orchard, Farm and Cider Mill and reminded the crowd that while Romney’s home state of Michigan is close to his heart, the state — especially Oakland County — is also closely contested in the election.
When Romney and Ryan first took the stage, loud speakers set up around the barn blasted the song ‘Born Free’ by Michigan native Kid Rock. Romney said he was proudly born in Michigan, and made a reference to the debate over President Barack Obama’s birth certificate.
“I love being home, in this place where Ann (Romney) and I were raised, where both of us were born,” Romney said. “Ann was born at Henry Ford Hospital and I was born at Harper Hospital. No one has ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place that we were born and raised.”
The comment stirred up controversy during the event, and led to responses via Twitter and e-mail from the Obama campaign.
“Take a moment or two to think about that, what he’s actually saying, and what it says about Mitt Romney,” Jim Messina, campaign manager for Obama for America, wrote in an e-mail.
Romney recalled growing up in Michigan, attending Cranbrook High School and campaigning for his parents’ political races, adding that he has visited every county in the state.
“(The people of this state) didn’t always vote party line, they voted for the person they thought could get Michigan working again, and my dad did, and I will,” Romney said.
Romney said electing him as president would put America on a path toward economic prosperity, noting that he would go into more detail about his plan at the upcoming Republican National Convention in Florida.
“We’re going to talk about these big challenges, and how we’re going to overcome them,” Romney said. “We’re going to talk about the soul of America — what makes this nation unique and exceptional.”
He added that Obama’s presidency has been a failure that put America on the wrong path.
“This president tried, I’m convinced he tried,” Romney said. “I think he was headed in the wrong direction is the problem. I want to put America on an entirely different track.”
Romney said he wants to see a return to the founding fathers’ dream of letting “individuals pursue happiness in their own ways” in an effort to develop the most prosperous country in the world.
“It is the free American people that make America the nation it is, not government,” he added.
Romney discussed his plan to save the economy, which includes tapping into pipelines for energy, promoting education, balancing the budget, reducing the deficit and repealing the Affordable Care Act signed into law by Obama.
Romney’s visit came just two days after a survey commissioned by several metropolitan Detroit media outlets, including WDIV Local 4, The Detroit News, and radio station WZZM, that highlighted the county as closely torn between supporters of Romney and Obama.
The survey, which has a margin of error of +/- 4.0 percent, found Obama maintaining a 47 percent to 42 percent lead over Romney among Oakland County voters, according to WDIV.
It also found that Obama has a 47.5 percent to 42.0 percent lead over Romney in the state overall, with 9.3 percent of voters undecided.
Ryan was announced as Romney’s running mate on Aug. 11, and the visit marked his first campaign stop in Michigan. Romney last visited the state for a June 19 campaign stop in Holland.
Ryan said it was good to be back in “Big Ten country” and then spoke out about several Obama remarks, including a quote from the 2008 presidential campaign when Obama referenced people who “cling to guns or religion or antipathy.”
“Remember when he said people from states like ours, we like to cling to our guns and religion … This Catholic deer hunter is guilty as charged and proud of it,” Ryan said.
Ryan added that Obama gave a “doozie” last week in Roanoke, Va. with his statement “’If you have a business, you didn’t build it, someone else did.’” He said such comments make Obama out of touch, and claimed it is the Romney ticket that can restore the American economy.
“There is no other system in the history of the Earth that has done more to help the poor, that has done more to help people rise to make something of their lives than the American system of liberty and free enterprise and we don’t want to replace it, we want to renew that,” Ryan said.
Republican Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra (R–Mich.) also spoke at the event and said today America has “too much debt, too much taxes, too much spending, too much government.”
Following the event, his opponent Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) issued a statement stating Romney and Ryan want Michiganders to support a middle class tax increase and dismantling of the current Medicare program.
“It’s the very policies Romney and Ryan support that caused the economic meltdown in the first place,” Stabenow said in the release.
U. Michigan student Jeremy Kucera, who said he voted for Romney in the primaries, said he thinks Romney will make history.
“It’s promising … I just want to come out and show support, every vote counts,” Kucera said.
He added that more college students should be attentive to the issues at hand, noting that he believes Romney has solutions for the challenges facing students.
“I just think that younger kids our age need to pay more attention to what they’re actually voting for, and they need to educate themselves more, instead of just listening to what may be popular because (Romney) actually has good solutions for college students,” Kucera said.