Election 2012: Job Gains Drive Romney To Attack Obama Over Gas
CHICAGO -- An improving job market is prompting Mitt Romney to scrap his emphasis on the unemployment rate and to focus on rising gas prices and government regulation as evidence that President Barack Obama has mismanaged the economy.</br></br>"With the economy looking like it's getting a little better on the employment front, gasoline's getting a lot worse," Mr. Romney told a crowd at a town-hall meeting Sunday in Vernon Hills, Ill.</br></br>At the University of Chicago on Monday, Mr. Romney argued that government regulation under Mr. Obama threatens to strangle ground-breaking ideas and would have stopped the work of Thomas Edison and the Wright brothers.</br></br>Mr. Romney has built his campaign on the premise he is better-equipped than Mr. Obama or any of the other Republicans seeking the presidential nomination to reinvigorate the economy.</br></br>The new approach in Mr. Romney's attacks came on the cusp of a primary election on Tuesday in Illinois that has the potential to boost his lead over other GOP candidates in the delegate count. The few polls conducted recently show Mr. Romney leading his closest rival, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, by between four and 15 percentage points. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Rep. Ron Paul have campaigned little in the state and trail in opinion surveys.