April 30, 2011 – PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — Add this to the long list of Mitt Romney trivia: He isn’t much of a fisherman.
“Everywhere I throw a hook, nothing comes up,” the presumptive Republican presidential nominee joked as he made small talk with some local fishermen Monday morning in this New England harbor city.
But as he toured three fishing boats docked at the Piscataqua River in Portsmouth, the former Massachusetts governor and business executive tried to demonstrate that even if he doesn’t catch lobster or cod, he understands the plight of those who do.
Romney lamented the government regulations — set in place decades ago, but continued under President Obama — that New Hampshire fishermen told him were crushing their ability to turn profits.
“We heard today about fishing regulations,” Romney said as he addressed a small rally at Portsmouth Fish Pier. “Regulators [are] just multiplying like proverbial rabbits and making it harder and harder for enterprises to grow and to understand what their future might be.”
Obama campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith responded by accusing Romney of “dishonest attacks against the president.”
“Mitt Romney continues to distort the truth about President Obama’s record of reducing burdensome business regulations,” Smith said. “While initiating an overhaul of the regulatory system that cuts red tape and will save businesses $10 billion over the next five years, President Obama has also approved fewer new regulations than President George W. Bush did during the same time period in his term.”
Read the full story at the Washington Post.