Authors: Jeanette Torres
J.D. Pooley/Getty Images(DENVER) -- Mitt Romney will unveil a presidential accountability scorecard on Thursday during a campaign stop in Colorado, his advisors told reporters Thursday morning.
The scorecard will establish five criteria which President Obama and Romney himself must meet if he becomes president. The scorecard will set goals of achieving energy independence in North America by 2020; provide Americans with the skills they need to succeed, including K-12 education, affordable higher education and job training; create a trade environment that works for America; cutting the deficit; and championing small businesses to foster job creation.
“We believe that elected leaders should be held accountable. President Obama said in Colorado four years ago when he accepted his party’s nomination for president that he measures progress by how many people can find a job that pays the mortgage, whether the average American family saw their income go up, and whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a business. By all those measures, he has failed,” Eric Fehrnstrom, senior advisor to Romney, said on a preview call with reporters. “Governor Romney is asking voters to hold him accountable on all those measures. He believes that Americans deserve better and America can do better.”
The 2020 goal for achieving energy independence in North America is a new timetable set by the campaign, which says it will work toward the goal by improving the regulatory climate in the energy industry and promote increased production of domestic energy through natural gas, oil development and coal.
While much of the plan has been laid out over the past year, Romney’s advisors said they will be “reintroducing” policy proposals this fall as voters pay closer attention to the election.
Romney’s team defended his tax plan, which Democrats attacked on Wednesday after a study by the Tax Policy Center found the plan would benefit the wealthy while hurting the poor.
“That report you referenced is a joke,” Fehrnstrom said, citing flaws in the authorship and methodology of the study.
Asked about the Obama administration’s transparency issues, Fehrnstrom said the efforts of White House aides -- including Jim Messina, now the campaign manager for Obama’s re-election -- to hold meetings with lobbyists off site to keep them a secret is “troubling” and appears to be against the law.
“On its face, this appears to be a violation of the law which requires that all official communications be preserved," Fehrnstrom said.
Romney is resuming campaigning in Colorado Thursday after a weeklong international trip, including a stop at the Olympics in London.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio
