Romney draws heat on poor, wage

Associated Press

EAGAN, Minn.

Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney, confident after his Florida primary victory, ended up inviting criticism Wednesday when he said he’s “not concerned about the very poor” because they have an “ample safety net.”

Democrats and Republicans alike — including opponent Newt Gingrich — pounced and the GOP front-runner quickly sought to explain his remarks.

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no,” Romney told reporters on his campaign plane when asked about the comments. “No, no, no. You’ve got to take the whole sentence, all right, it’s mostly the same.” He said his remark was consistent with his theme throughout the race, adding: “My energy is going to be devoted to helping middle-income people.”

Despite that explanation, Romney’s comments quickly became an immediate distraction from his message that he’s more conservative than Gingrich and from the double-digit thumping the former House speaker sustained in Florida. His campaign worked behind the scenes to provide context for the comment.

Gingrich raised Romney’s remark at his first event since losing the Florida primary. He read Romney’s quotes aloud and they were met with boos from the crowd at a brewery in Reno, Nev.

“I am fed up with politicians in either party dividing Americans against each other,” Gingrich said. “I am running to be the president of all the American people and I am concerned about all the American people.”

As the day began, Romney told CNN from Florida: “I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I’ll fix it. I’m not concerned about the very rich. They’re doing just fine. I’m concerned about the very heart of America, the 90-95 percent of Americans who right now are struggling.”

“You can focus on the very poor; that’s not my focus,” he said.

President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign was quick to criticize.

“So much for ‘we’re all in this together,’” tweeted Obama campaign manager Jim Messina.

Some conservative pundits also labeled it a gaffe and said it was evidence Romney wasn’t prepared to run against Obama.

“The issue here is not that Romney is right or wrong, but that he is handing choice sound bites to the Democrats to make him as unlikeable as he made Newt Gingrich,” said Erick Erickson on the conservative RedState blog. And Jonah Goldberg at the conservative National Review Online said of Romney: “Every time he seems to get into his groove and pull away, he says things that make people think he doesn’t know how to play the game.”

With criticism mounting, Romney flew to Minnesota and addressed a rally before heading to Nevada. He also boasted in flight about his “huge” Florida victory.

Gay-rights protesters in Minnesota threw glitter at Romney before he took the stage, making him the latest candidate to be “glittered” by activists opposed to his position on gay rights. Romney, who opposes gay marriage, put a positive spin on the sparkle in his hair.

“This is confetti! We just won Florida,” he said as he took the stage.

Romney, whose central challenge is winning over skeptical conservatives, told reporters on the plane that the fact that he performed strongly among conservatives in Florida made sense because he’s more conservative than Gingrich.

Romney also renewed his support Wednesday for automatic increases in the federal minimum wage to keep pace with inflation, a position sharply at odds with traditional GOP business allies, conservatives and the party’s senior lawmakers.

“I haven’t changed my thoughts on that,” the former Massachusetts governor told reporters aboard his chartered campaign plane, referring to a stand he has held for a decade.

He did not say if he would ask Congress to approve the change if he wins the White House this fall.

Congress first enacted federal minimum-wage legislation in 1938 and has raised it sporadically in the years since. The last increase, approved in 2007, took effect in three installments and reached $7.25 an hour for covered workers effective July 24, 2009.

It has never been allowed to rise automatically, as Romney envisions.

Gingrich criticized Romney for the stance, pointing to previous periods of hyperinflation and saying it would end up costing way too much money. “That would be a very dangerous idea,” Gingrich said.

Romney also drew criticism from the anti-tax Club for Growth.

“Indexing the minimum wage would be an absolute job killer,” the group’s president, Chris Chocola, said in a statement.

Organized labor generally supports increases in the minimum wage, and Romney’s position could give him cross-over appeal among blue-collar Democrats in a general election campaign.