BLOG: Tough times for Romney on campaign trail

It is still too early to tell but the past five days might count as some of the hardest Republican Mitt Romney has endured since he emerged as the front-runner for his party’s ticket.

Trouble came in the form of some more digging about his retirement from Bain Capital, a controversial investment firm he founded, the attendant benefit to Obama’s campaign and a widely reported awkward meeting with a black civil rights lobby group.

He was booed by the African-American crowd when he promised he would repeal President Barack Obama’s flagship healthcare law- the Affordable Care Act- if he is elected to replace him.

Although he was applauded at some points during his speech at the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) conference, a commentator has seized on something he said elsewhere later Wednesday evening.

"If they want more stuff from government tell them to go vote for the other guy -- more free stuff. But don't forget nothing is really free," he was reported to have told a group of Republican donors.

Leslie Watson, a Director of African American Affairs at a lobby group, was particularly galled by the suggestion that blacks make up the larger part of those who depend on food stamps from the government.

“When a national candidate attacks and disrespect African Americans by saying we want "more free stuff" and then tells his wealthy donors that we're keeping them back by wanting "more free stuff", he's not just insulting us. He's insulting his donors by telling lies and he's insulting all Americans who know first-hand that "nothing is really free," who share our values and struggles, and who are voters and citizens of the country that he's hoping to lead,” she wrote on The Huffington Post.

His attempt to reach out to blacks was not the only awkward moment for Mr Romney this week.

His past continued to haunt him as the Obama campaign issued a series of fresh accusations about the former Massachusetts governor’s role in Bain Capital, the investment firm he founded.

The president’s campaign managers say that Mr Romney lied to authorities on the time he left the firm and was responsible for decisions made there even after he left.

The Huffington Post reported that this latest angle of attack is aimed at pushing the Republican candidate to release more of his tax records than the two he already has, for 2011 and 2010.

The Times said proving that Mr Romney was at Bain Capital beyond 1999, the year he says he left the firm, would enable the Obama campaign to link the Republican with the outsourcing of American jobs abroad.

America is still recovering from the biggest economic slump in recent decades and in an environment where there is lots of focus on the monthly jobs numbers, proof that Mr Romney took jobs away would be damaging to his campaign.

This week, both Republican and Democrat lawmakers railed at the US Olympics Committee after finding out that the uniforms for the national team were designed in the States but made in China.

"I am so upset. I think the Olympic committee should be ashamed of themselves. I think they should be embarrassed. I think they should take all the uniforms, put them in a big pile and burn them and start all over again," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat from Nevada, told reporters in Washington D.C.

China’s economic growth and foray into Africa has attracted the attention of the United States, which sees that progress as a threat to its image as the world superpower.

China holds $1.16 trillion in US debt and is the country’s largest creditor and the idea that a presidential candidate took jobs east would not be taken kindly by voters.

The New York Times reported Friday afternoon that Mr Romney had demanded that Obama apologize to him for his adviser making “reckless” claims against him and his role at Bain. It was the first of a series of interviews on five network and cable television stations- CNN, CBS, ABC, Fox and NBC.

These interviews would give the candidate an opportunity to react to and probably defend himself against claims made by the Obama campaign and offer another view of events in the past week.

All these aside, the two candidates remain neck-and-neck in opinion polls by Gallup, which has them at 46 per cent each. It remains a very tight race.

Mr Ngirachu is in the United States on a training programme.