Romney says Obama needs to talk more about the economy

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — Mitt Romney accused President Obama on Monday of trying to distract the American people from his record on the nation’s economy.

“I wish the president would start talking about the economy and stop trying to divert with all the silliness day in and day out of he and his team,” Romney said while campaigning on a scenic fishing pier here. “Let’s focus on what people care about, and the issue people care about is the one that’s affecting us, which is their pocketbooks, their gasoline prices, the cost of higher education, the need for more jobs, the need for higher incomes.”

Romney said Obama’s taxation, regulatory and energy policies have harmed the nation’s small-business owners. Regulators, he said, were “multiplying like proverbial rabbits.”

Lis Smith, a spokeswoman for the Obama campaign, said Romney was being dishonest, and that the president had created fewer new regulations than his Republican predecessor in the same time period.

Romney made the remarks after meeting with fishermen whose livelihoods he said were jeopardized by overly zealous regulations. He campaigned alongside New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, an early backer who is on Romney’s list of potential running mates.

Former Gov. John Sununu gave an appraisal of Ayotte’s chances, saying she had a strong fiscally conservative record and was a dynamic campaigner, but was probably harmed by the fact that she and Romney were from the same geographic region. He said the campaign was sizing up nearly two dozen prospects.

“I know the bowl has about 19 or 20 folded pieces of paper in it and they keep shaking the bowl,” he told reporters shortly before Romney spoke.

seema.mehta@latimes.com