Romney turning focus to domestic energy production and trade

DENVER — Mitt Romneywill try to regain his footing in the presidential campaign this week by highlighting specific proposals that he hopes will be an affirmative argument for his candidacy, focusing first on energy and trade policy.

Among the policies Romney plans to push is protecting American intellectual property rights from what he has repeatedly referred to as “cheaters in China,” crafting agreements to increase international trade, approving the Keystone XL oil pipeline and renewing a push for drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. The goal: to convince Americans that they would fare better economically under his presidency.

The proposals are not new, but the campaign’s decision to draw attention to them reflects a shift for a candidate who has been criticized for focusing too much on denigrating President Obama and not enough on telling voters what a Romney presidency would mean.

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“Voters will get to know more not only about the specifics of the Romney plan, but how it will benefit them,” senior advisor Ed Gillespie wrote in a memo to reporters released Monday. “A real recovery will improve the quality of life for working Americans and lift millions out of poverty by making jobs available again.”

Romney has been dogged in recent days by challenges – the release of a secretly recorded video of him making controversial remarks about supporters of President Obama, internal strife in the campaign, troubling polls in battleground states, questions among the chattering class about the relatively slow pace of his campaign, and concern among conservative allies that his bid is faltering.

The Republican nominee addressed some of these concerns when he spoke to reporters aboard his campaign plane on Sunday, saying that his focus on fundraising was driven by the need to compete financially with Obama. He said that he would spend less time raising money, presumably meaning he would spend more time rallying supporters and wooing the undecided in battleground states.

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“The fundraising season is probably a little quieter going forward,” Romney said.

His schedule shows hints of an increased pace – on Sunday night, Romney held a tele-town-hall with Iowa voters, and he had a rally in Denver. On Monday, Romney is scheduled to hold a rally in Pueblo, Colo., and on Tuesday, after public appearances in New York, he will start a two-day bus tour of Ohio. Romney may appear in Virginia on Thursday. All are states that are critical in his bid for the White House.

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seema.mehta@latimes.com

Twitter: @LATSeema