SUMTER, S.C. — Amid shaking hands and signing campaign posters, Mitt Romney did something he has never done before on the ropeline: He took out his wallet and handed a wad of cash to a woman waiting to shake his hand.
The woman, 55-year-old Ruth Williams, says she has been following the Romney campaign since he arrived in the state on Jan. 11, when she said she received a message from God to track him down.
“I was on the highway praying and said, ‘God just show me how to get [my] lights on,’ and I pulled up to a stop sign and his bus was there,” said Williams, who has been unemployed since last October. “And then God said, ‘Follow the bus,’ and I followed the bus to the airport.”
According to Williams, she followed the campaign bus to the Columbia airport on Wednesday, the same day Romney was arriving from New Hampshire. When Romney wasn’t on the bus, aides told her to go to the rally scheduled in Columbia later that day. When she showed up, Romney found her to say hello and pulled over South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley to say “hello” too.
“He was kind to me and he made Gov. Haley come see about me,” Williams said. “He stopped doing everything.
After days of controversy over commercials criticizing Romney’s company, Bain Capital, for slashing jobs in South Carolina, Romney did not mention Bain, but instead compared his experience creating jobs to Obama’s experience as a community organizer.
“He likes to say that he has had extensive experience working alongside hard working Americans.” Romney said. “I think it helps to have actually been a hard working American...To create jobs in the private sector, it helps to have had a job in the private sector.”
Jobs are a top issue for voters in South Carolina – the state’s current unemployment rate is 9.9%, and this summer the state had the third-highest unemployment rate in the country. South Carolina is a right-to-work state, which means unions cannot require employees to join or pay dues, and a strong anti-union bias has grown after the National Labor Relations Board tried to prohibit Boeing Co. from building a plant north of Charleston, accusing the company of moving jobs from Washington State to avoid hiring union employees.
Romney alluded to federal government interference in enterprise in his speech, saying that as a businessman, he knew how to create an environment that would make companies want to create jobs.
“I will make America again the best place for enterprise,” he said.
Romney also pledging to open up energy drilling, cut federal spending and get government out of voters’ lives.
Just weeks ago, Newt Gingrich told Occupy Wall Street protesters to "take a bath" and "get a job." But now that he's taking a bath, and not getting the job that he wants, he might as well buy a sleeping bag and a tarp.
By now you've heard Mr. Gingrich calling Republican front-runner and former venture capitalist Mitt Romney a looter.
A 28-minute film distributed by a Gingrich-loving superpac even calls Mr. Romney a "predatory corporate raider." (It does not call Mr. Gingrich, who bagged about $1.6 million in consulting fees at government-seized mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, a "predatory corporate historian.")
At Bain Capital, Mr. Romney acquired and merged companies, loaded them with debt, fired employees, slashed vendors, disappointed customers and sometimes collected enormous fees just for mismanaging enterprises into certain bankruptcy.
This is what private-equity investors do. They often have 10 losers for every big winner. Mr. Romney didn't wake up at Bain Capital each morning and say, "Hmm. How could I create a new job today?" It's not the role of venture capitalists to create jobs, as Mr. Romney now pretends. It is to create as few jobs as possible so they can bag envious profits.
He often talks about pop culture. His new campaign uniform is a pair of jeans -- usually Gap or Tommy Bahama -- paired with a button-down patterned shirt. He wears suits on the debate stage, but only an hour after a morning debate in New Hampshire he was already in new clothes for a campaign event. His wife, Ann, often testifies about Romney's easy-going, even fun, personal side.
At an event here Saturday, 55-year-old Ruth Williams approached Romney to tell him she was jobless. Romney opened his wallet and handed her a wad of cash, according to ABC News. A Romney spokesperson confirmed he gave her between $50 and $60.
But Romney still hasn't been able to fully shake the image of a dull, straight-laced Wall Street banker with an awkward side who lacks charisma.
And some of his rivals are stoking the notion that the wealthy former venture capitalist from Boston is out of touch with many Americans -- and far from the kind of president an average-Joe voter would want to down a beer with.
Gingrich's campaign has assembled a highlight reel of clips of Romney's verbal miscues, and openings he's created for rivals to attack, from this campaign and from 2008. One clip is from a Fox News interview in which Romney says the family's Irish Setter traveled in "a completely airtight kennel, mounted on the roof of our car.
With goals by 6-foot-7 Bryan Boyle, 6-foot-4 Mike Rupp and 6-footer Derek Stepan, the Rangers simply manhandled the Leafs on Saturday night, skating off with a 3-0 win.
The Leafs got in a few hits of their own — notably by Dion Phaneuf on Boyle in the third period. But they couldn’t beat Marty Biron in the Rangers net. The Leafs’ suddenly sputtering offence was left to talk about hitting posts and bouncing pucks.
“We were just, it seemed, a half a foot behind,” said coach Ron Wilson. “We needed our speed in order to compete with them.
“They didn’t allow us to use our speed in some situations. We just didn’t have the energy we needed to play.”
Wilson said the Leafs were tired after losing 3-2 to Buffalo on Friday night. The Leafs are now 2-5-1 in the second of back-to-back games.
“We didn’t have the energy to really push back the way we might have had we not played (Friday) night,” said Wilson. “Their focus was taking and eliminating the (Tim) Connolly line and they did a pretty good job of that.”
Rupp opened the scoring 3:35 into the second, completing a crisp passing play with Stepan and Wojtek Wolski on a 3-on-1 break that developed after a bad line change by Toronto defenseman Mike Komisarek.
Toronto had its share of chances in the second. Phil Kessel had a shot hit the crossbar, and Cody Franson's drive through traffic struck Biron's mask and landed in his glove.
Boyle gave the tight-checking Rangers a two-goal lead at 16:28 with a long wrist shot. He pointed skyward in relief after ending a 22-game scoring drought.
The Leafs appeared to break Biron's shutout bid in the third on a low shot by Tim Connolly, but video review was inconclusive and the score remained 2-0.
Stepan added an insurance goal with a nice deke at 6:01.
The Maple Leafs killed both minor penalties they were assessed. It was their sixth straight game without allowing a power-play goal.
NOTES: The Leafs took the warmup in camouflage sweaters on Canadian Forces Night. ... Brandon Dubinsky sat out for the Rangers because of a sore shoulder. ... Toronto scratched Jay Rosehill and Jake Gardiner. ... Gustavsson won two previous starts against the Rangers this season in New York. ... Biron earned his third assist of the season on Stepan's goal.
A honeymooning couple have been rescued from the submerged Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia more than 24 hours after it ran aground off the coast of Tuscany.
The South Korean newlyweds were found by rescuers in a cabin two decks above the water line of the Mediterranean. It is understood the pair, who are 29 years old, are in good condition.
Fire commander Vincenzo Bennardo said rescuers had been banging on doors of the ship cabins and finally heard a reply from one of the rooms early on Sunday. They had not stopped going door-to-door during the night in the non-submerged part of the ship, he said.
The Costa Concordia hit a reef during dinner on Friday and capsized off Tuscany, forcing the evacuation of about 4,200 people. Three bodies were found and about 40 more remained unaccounted for.
A massive coastguard evacuation and rescue operation was launched, but despite the panic among passengers the vast majority of people on board made it to safety.
Early on Sunday, firefighters found two people, both South Koreans, still alive in a cabin after making voice contact with them from several decks above, Italian media reported.
An official involved in the rescue operation said two French tourists and a Peruvian crew member were dead.
There were fears the death toll could rise in one of Italy's worst shipping disasters in years as specialist diving teams checked interior spaces of the vessel.
"We don't rule out the possibility that more people will be lost," said fire services spokesman Luca Cari. It was not clear how many of those unaccounted for could still be trapped in the ship or simply had not been counted among those rescued.
The ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, was arrested on Saturday night for questioning by magistrates, police said.
They said Schettino, whose ship was carrying 4,229 passengers and crew, abandoned the vessel before all the passengers were taken off.
The vessel's operator, Costa Crociere, a unit of Carnival Corp & Plc, the world's largest cruise company, said the Costa Concordia had been sailing on its regular course when it struck a submerged rock.
In a television interview, Schettino said the rock was not marked on any maritime charts of the area.
Costa Cruises president Gianni Ororato said the captain "performed a manoeuvre intended to protect both guests and crew" but it was "complicated by a sudden tilting of the ship".
It remained unclear how the 290-metre long ship had run aground in calm waters so close to the shore.
"We'll be able to say at the end of the investigation. It would be premature to speculate on this," said coastguard spokesman Filippo Marini.
The ship was involved in an accident on November 22, 2008 when it hit a port wall and was damaged while docking.
In the latest incident the Costa Concordia was left capsized on its side in water 15-20 metres deep, with decks partly submerged, not far from the shore. A large gash was visible on its side.
Local officials expressed concern that the fuel on the ship, at full load as it had just begun the cruise, could spill into the pristine waters.
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