At a Wednesday gathering of capital financiers in LA, Mitt Romney said Barack Obama will be a tough foe in 2012, partially because the economy will probably be better, and the POTUS will be in a boasting kind of mood.
That being said, he previews what the Republican nominee might say, in spite of the improvement (watch vid here, about 8:10 in).
"I think President Obama will be difficult to beat in 2012, because I think an incumbent has extraordinary advantages. He will pull out all the stops, although he's pulled out so many stops at this point that there might not be a whole lot more to pull out in terms of federal reserve, interest rates and stimulus and so forth.
But he will do everything he can to get the economy going back again, and most likely -- at least in my view -- the economy will be coming back.
He will, you know, you can expect Vice President Biden to come out and say it was the President's great economic accomplishment that the economy has turned around, and of course, most of the people in this room will recognize it was in spite of much that was done in Washington that the economy has turned around. Recessions do end. The economy recovers. It always has. It always will.
That being said, however, they will take credit for the fact that things are getting better. That will help the President's reelection effort.
I think, however, that the American people have established a perspective on the President which is going to be lasting -- that he has not understood the nature of America, in some respects, that the values I've described of love of liberty, of freedom, of opportunity, of small government -- that those values he doesn't share.
And I think it's going to be possible to beat him, but not easy."
He added that there would "probably be about ten Republicans on the stage in the first debate" vying for that chance to beat Obama.
