Mitt Romney in Tampa hits Obama's economic policies

Republican presidential primary frontrunner Mitt Romney chatted with a handful of unemployed Tampa Bay area residents during a stop at a downtown Tampa coffee shop Thursday, and blamed their problems on President Barack Obama.

"We're now three years into the president's four year term, and housing's still going down, and foreclosures are still at record levels and unemployment nationwide's above 9 percent, above 10 percent here in Florida. It's inexcusable," Romney told reporters after the gathering at Buddy Brew Coffee on Kennedy Boulevard.

He accused Obama of "the most anti-investment, anti-growth, anti-job strategy that has existed in America since Jimmy Carter. … President Obama has failed Florida."

Romney made his stop during a three-day fundraising tour of the state, taking advantage of a Florida fundraising network that's by far the strongest of any GOP candidate.

To help translate that financial advantage into a political advantage, he met with a group of out-of-work job seekers in a state hit harder than most by the recession.

They were invited by Lee Savage, community outreach minister who runs a program for the unemployed at Clearwater's North Bay Community Church.

Sitting around a table with Romney in the tiny storefront, their stories sounded painfully commonplace. Among them:

•Sandy Evans of Palm Harbor, a software developer with 30 years in her field, was laid off by the Nielsen Co. ratings company more than a year ago, and since then has managed to get only one job interview. She said she lost her job to a legal immigrant who came here on a guest worker visa.

In response to her question, Romney didn't say whether favors or opposes work visas or a guest worker program, but said they should be tailored to the state of employment in specific industries.

•Kimberly Iaquinto, also of Palm Harbor, has had two jobs, both of which collapsed under her, since she graduated from the University of North Florida with a public relations major in 2010.

•Grace Hill of Dunedin, an experienced executive assistant, is working in a temp job because she has been unable to find work in her field since her job at a non-profit in Colorado ended and she moved here two months ago.

"When you're laid off, you have no idea what to do – you just go into this fetal position," said Pat Manion, who also lost a job at Nielsen.

Romney's advice: Do as much face-to-face networking as possible in addition to online networking, and consider unemployment a normal fact of life, not "a personal defeat."

"You may feel alone in this," he said, but "It's pretty common – it's not something people should look at as being extreme."

He also joked about his quest for the presidency: "I should also tell my own story – I'm also unemployed, and I'm networking."

Coming from the wealthy former equity fund chief, that line drew chuckles in the coffee shop but jeers from Democrats later.

Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chair of the Democratic National Committee, issued a statement saying Romney's comments were "inappropriate and insensitive to the millions of Americans looking for work."

"This comment shows that Mitt Romney — a man who wants for nothing and whose only occupation for more than four years has been to run for president — is incredibly out of touch with what's going on in our country and around the dinner tables of those who are out of work," she said. "Being unemployed, Mr. Romney, is not a joke."

Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom called the Democratic criticism an "absurd distortion" of statement that what was clearly made in jest.

"The person who doesn't take the employment crisis seriously is President Obama, who has discontinued his daily economic briefing," Fehrnstrom said. "If elected, Mitt Romney will reinstate the daily economic briefing and make job creation his number one priority."

Democrats, however, noted that Massachusetts experienced low job growth during Romney's tenure as governor there.

But Romney told the group, "I wish I had a job for everybody … If I get the job I'm looking for, I will spend all my time focused on getting America back to work."

Romney said the solution to the nation's unemployment problems is lower taxes for businesses, "streamlined" government regulations and tough international trade policies, "to make this the most attractive place in the world to start a business."

Romney declined to say whether he agrees with Gov. Rick Scott's decision to reject a $2.4 billion federal grant for a high-speed rail project in Florida that was expected to create thousands of jobs here, although he said he can "understand the logic" of Scott's decision.

Asked whether he'll seek an endorsement from Scott, whose low approval figures have made Democrats consider him a potential asset in Florida's 2012 elections, Romney said, "Anybody running for president would like every endorsement they could get. We have spoken from time to time, I'll continue to keep in touch, and I have no idea what his plans are in that regard."

His early emphasis on fundraising, including the tour and a $10 million, one-day event in Las Vegas last month, suggests Romney hopes to build an early money lead his GOP opponents will find insurmountable.

But asked about his fundraising, Romney said, "We're not trying to overflow the coffers. … We'll all have sufficient funds to get our message out."

He also played down his frontrunner position, saying, "I realize I've got a long way to go … My support will probably come down a bit in the polls as others get better known."

Romney wouldn't take a position on whether Florida should hold an early primary or follow party rules and wait until March, but said he hopes for "a very active and leading Florida role" in the nomination contest, "because I think I'll do well in Florida."

Nonetheless, he recently announced that he won't compete in the state Republican Party straw poll in September.