Romney Campaign Previews Bus Tour

BOSTON | Mitt Romney’s five-day, six-state bus tour set to launch Friday will take the candidate to turf friendly to President Obama, a top campaign strategist told reporters at a morning briefing at the team’s headquarters in Boston.

Romney adviser Russ Schriefer noted that all six states on the trip — New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa and Michigan — were won by the president four years ago, but he said they are up for grabs this time around.

The reason, he offered: the economic struggles facing voters in those states. “People are tired of being tired,” Schriefer said. “They’re looking for new optimistic leadership to turn the country around.”

Schriefer called the locations “not necessarily traditional campaign stops” that were “off the beaten path.” He said the events would give Romney an “opportunity to talk about his vision for the future.”

One leading Republican has urged Romney to do just that in recent days. At a Washington breakfast Thursday Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said Romney should put forward a “clear, bold plan” to address the economic and fiscal crisis facing the country.

Asked about the president’s recent comment that the private sector is “doing fine,” Schriefer refused to dub the statement a turning point in the campaign.

He said instead the remark was part of an “evolution” and represented the “continuing of three-and a-half years of disappointment” from the administration. Schriefer suggested that voters were promised a lot by the president and that he had “failed to live up to those promises.”

As far as the tour’s inclusion of several high-profile GOP surrogates, including former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., the campaign said the was no set pattern or formal process in place, but did note that Romney would sit down for a burger with House Speaker John Boehner when the expedition rolls through Ohio this weekend.