About 250 Iowa Republicans gathered for a party fundraiser Saturday evening in Des Moines, but none of the elected officials who spoke mentioned the name of the G.O.P.’s likely presidential nominee. Senator Chuck Grassley made this declaration early in his six-minute speech.
“I want you to know that between now and (the) election, nothing will have my attention, time or effort more than helping to defeat President Obama,” Grassley said, to applause.
State legislators, the lieutenant governor, Iowa’s two Republican congressmen and Virginia’s attorney general — the night’s keynote speaker — focused on other races and made references to the presidential race — by calling for President Obama’s ouster rather than Mitt Romney’s rise. It was left to Ann Romney — speaking in a video played at the end of the evening — to tout her husband’s candidacy.
“If you really want to know how a person will operate, look at how they’ve lived their life,” she said in the video, which focused on the couple’s marriage and family and Mitt Romney’s career in business and his leadership of the Salt Lake City Olympics.
Read a live blog of the event and listen to Grassley’s speech here.