Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney his wife Ann and their youngest son Craig paid a visit to Atlantic Sunday afternoon. Their stop brought them to the Family Table Restaurant which was packed with media and others who came to hear what the apparent front-runner leading up to the Iowa Caucuses had to say. Ann Romney told the crowd Iowans have “A job to do Tuesday,” as far as selecting the right person to move on to the November elections.  She said they “Think Iowa can do what needs to be done, which is getting Mitt on the pathway to defeat Barack Obama.”

Mitt Romney at the Family Table Restaurant in Atlantic, 1-1-12

Romney, the former Governor of Massachusetts, said the election isn’t just about replacing Obama, “It’s an election about the soul of America, and what direction our nation is going to take.”  He criticized Obama as being unable to understand the power of the prinicples on which the nation was founded. He said Obama has pushed us away from being an opportunity and merit society into a European-style welfare state. He says that means Obama has turned us into an “Entitlement society, where government takes from some and gives to others.”

Romney said he doesn’t want to radically transform America. Instead, he wants to restore “The principles that made America great.” He said to do that, the government needs to stop spending more money than it takes in. In order to change the country’s current course, he would examine every spending program in the country and subject it to a litmus test. He says the test would determine “If a program is so critical to America, that we should be borrowing money from China to pay for it?” If it fails the test, Romney said he would kill the program in question, including Obamacare, which he says is “At the top of his list.”

He said he would continue to keep a “safety net” in place for those who are poor, and can’t care for themselves. But States he says, are more capable of handling that than the Feds are. That includes turning Medicaid over to the states. He would also link the pay of Federal workers to their counterparts in the private sector.

Romney greets patrons of the restaurant, surrounded by the media

Romney said Obama has failed us in many areas, including protecting the country from the threats overseas. One of those threats, he says, comes from a nuclear Iran, which announced on Sunday they had developed a nuclear rod, and, successfully tested a surface-to-air missle. Romney says Obama has failed to put promised sanctions in-place against Iran, he was silent when the country’s opposition leaders spoke out against their leaders, and when the people of Iran learned the U-S wouldn’t consider a military option to those developments.

He says Obama promised not long after he was elected, he would not run again if he couldn’t get the economy turned around in three-years. Romney said that hasn’t happened, and he’s “Here to collect” on that promise.