Romney: California tough for GOP but can ‘help me’ win

Mitt Romney, raising money in Riverside on Friday, acknowledged during his plea to donors the implausibility in winning California in the general election.

“You gotta vote, and I know you’re going to vote. But I know that California is a hard state for a Republican to win,” he told about 300 supporters at a luncheon at a golf course. “If I won California, why, we’ve won in a landslide, you know that? So, I’m hoping to win California, but I’m aiming to win in those key swing states, and one of the things you can do is help people help me.”

Romney is in the midst of a four-day, multicity fundraising run through the state, which last supported a Republican for president in 1988 and has no statewide elected officeholders who are Republican. He will also raise money Friday night at a private fundraiser at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach, and Saturday in Del Mar.

On Friday, Romney urged his supporters to ask their friends to contribute to his campaign and to talk to young family members in other parts of the country about his candidacy.

“Talk to them about this election and what it means about their future. In some cases, they haven’t been given a full understanding of what’s at stake in this election. They don’t realize the unfairness, the unfairness of a president who is taking from their future to pay for benefits for us today,” he said. “The idea of passing on trillions of dollars of debt and unfunded liabilities to the next generation is not just bad economics, it’s immoral and it’s unfair.”

Romney made his remarks at the Victoria Club, a golf course and country club in the Tequesquite Arroyo. Donors dined on green salad and chicken. Among those attending was longtime Los Angeles Dodgers’ manager Tommy Lasorda.

Romney said the jobs numbers that came out Friday, which showed an uptick in unemployment in May and a meager number of new jobs added to payrolls, proved the president’s policies aren’t working.

“When it was announced, there was a gasp from the floor, the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange. People were shocked by how few jobs have been created this last month,” Romney said. “The president, of course, when bad news comes out, looks around for someone to blame. The president was at the White House, former president, President Bush was there. I’m sure he had to duck, because President Bush is always the one they point to, it’s all his fault. I’m afraid that’s worn a little thin.”

He said the president, in office for more than three years, is directly responsible for the halting pace of the nation’s economic recovery.

“The president’s spokesman today said this recession was long in the making and it won’t be overcome overnight. Forty months is not overnight,” Romney said. “This president is responsible for the fact that this recession has gone on so long and so many people are hurting.”

Romney said the nation was at a crossroads and the election in November would be a critical decision for its future.

“This is a campaign that has to be won. It has to be won. The country is in the balance,” Romney said. “We’re going to vote for what we believe America might be, and with your help, we’ll get the job done.”

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