(Newser)
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A smiling Mitt Romney grasped hands all the way to the stage before a booming Republican National Convention tonight to hail his record at Bain Capital, lash President Obama's failed "hope and change" that America "deserved," and present his vision for the future. He pointedly wooed the female vote, noting that his mother ran for Senate, that he picked a female chief of staff and lieutenant governor when he was governor of Massachusetts. "Why should women have any less to say about the great issues of the country than men?" he recalled his mother asking. He said his wife had the harder and more important job of the family, raising their children, and teared up recalling the days they were little. Romney also boasted of his experience with controversial investment company Bain Capital, calling it a "great American success story" that has provided him with insight into financial turnarounds.
"In America, we don't apologize for success, we celebrate success," he crowed in the acceptance speech. Now what the nation needs "is jobs, lots of jobs," he said. Romney vowed to create 12 million new jobs over the next four years though a five-step process, including exploiting American oil, coal, gas, nuclear and renewable energy resources, building skills for workers, forging new trade agreements, cutting the deficit (but retaining military expenditures), and championing small businesses—"America’s engine of job growth"—by reducing taxes, "simplifying" regulations, and repealing ObamaCare. He vowed that as president he would also protect the "sanctity of life" and marriage. Romney promised to help America lift its "eyes to a better future; let us begin that future together tonight."
