Concord, Hampshire - Republican nominee Mitt Romney wants his rival Barack Obama to report on his unfulfilled promises on Thursday rather than new vows when he accepts his party's nomination for re-election.
“Over the last four years, the president has said that he was going to create jobs for the American people and that hasn't happened. He said he would cut the deficit in half and that hasn't happened,” Romney told reporters in the New Hampshire capital of Concord.
“He said that incomes would rise and instead incomes have gone down. And I think this is a time not for him... to start restating new promises but to report on the promises he made.”
Asked if he would watch Obama’s speech, Romney said “don't plan on it”.
Obama is expected to tell Americans that he rescued them from a second Great Depression, blame Republicans for leaving him a legacy of debt and recession, and warn Romney's policies would risk repeating the disaster.
He is also under pressure for the first time to lay out specifics of what he would hope to do in a second term, and to go into more detail than the largely aspirational vision he has so far framed.
Romney, who accepted his party's nomination last week to challenge Obama in the November 6 election, said he would “love to watch” the speech if the president delves into his own record over the past three and a half years.
“But if it's another series of new promises that he's not going to keep... I have no interest in seeing him because I saw the promises last time (and) the American people deserve to know why he did not keep his promises.”
The Romney camp has harassed Obama's re-election team this week by relentlessly asking whether Americans are better off now than they were four years ago.
Bill Clinton, the last Democratic two-term president, gave a rousing speech to the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night, saying the country was indeed better off, having pulled itself out of a near-depression and stemmed the massive job loss that Obama inherited.
But Republicans have mocked such claims, saying Obama's economic policies have been a failure and that it is time for new leadership.
“I think he wants a promises reset,” Romney said of Obama.
“We want a report on the promises he made. And that means let's hear some numbers. Let's hear 16 - $16-trillion of debt. This is very different than the promise he made.
“Let's hear the number 47 - 47-million people in this country on food stamps. When he took office, 33-million people were on food stamps,” Romney added.
The former Massachusetts governor also challenged Obama to explain “why it was he's been unsuccessful in helping alleviate poverty in this country”. - Sapa-AFP