Romney's new "change" message carries risks

NASHUA, New Hampshire (Reuters) - Republican Mitt Romney, reeling from defeat in Iowa, is casting himself newly in the race for the U.S. presidency as an outsider who will shake up Washington, but his message of change is a double-edged sword.

The former Massachusetts governor has retooled his stump speech to focus on fixing a "fundamentally broken" Washington ahead of Tuesday's primary election in New Hampshire, the crucial next major contest of the race where his once-dominant lead has vanished in recent weeks.

"Americans are not looking for Washington insiders. They are looking for change, and change is what we are going to give them," he said on Sunday in Nashua.

The mantra is meant to contrast Romney, a former venture capitalist who shot to prominence in 2002 for rescuing the debt-ridden Salt Lake City Olympics, with John McCain, the 71-year-old veteran U.S. senator from Arizona who polls now show running neck-and-neck with Romney in New Hampshire.

"Look at the people running for president. They will talk about the problems from one side to the other. But then after four years, 12 or 16 what's actually changed? Nothing," he told voters at a house party on Saturday in Bedford.

In that six-minute speech, he used the words "change," "changed" or "changing" more than a dozen times.

But the message is complicated by his support for many of President George W. Bush's most polarizing policies -- from the Iraq war to tax cuts for the wealthy -- and his efforts to present himself as a Bush loyalist to the party's conservative base in recent months, political analysts say.

"It's difficult not just to imagine the kinds of changes he'll bring but to imagine him as that kind of candidate. It goes against everything he has run on for the past half year," said Julian Zelizer, a professor of politics at Princeton University who has tracked Romney's career for years.

Thomas Whalen, a professor of politics at Boston University, said Republican Mike Huckabee's win last week in Iowa and the groundswell of Democratic support for Barack Obama show "a complete repudiation of the Bush administration's policies."

"Romney is reading the tea leaves here and realizes he is going to have to go up against Bush and at least give the appearance that he is repudiating the status quo here in the Republican party," he said.

OPEN TO ATTACKS

Romney is also opening himself up to attacks over one of his biggest liabilities: the perception that he is a flip-flopper after shifting stances on several hot-button social issues -- from gay rights to abortion and gun control -- before entering the presidential race.

McCain, whose maverick image is seen picking up support among independent voters in New Hampshire, turned the theme of change against his rival for the Republican nomination in a televised debate on Saturday.

"We disagree on a lot of issues," he said. "But I agree, you are the candidate of change."

New Hampshire, the next in the state-by-state process to choose party candidates for the November election, is crucial to Romney's hopes of revitalizing his well-funded campaign after the loss last week to Huckabee. The former Arkansas governor broke with Republican orthodoxy by criticizing Bush and rode a surge of evangelical Christian support.

In New Hampshire, Romney touts a long list of reforms -- from seeking energy independence to improving America's image aboard. He says his resume makes him better positioned to defeat Obama, who won the Democratic vote in Iowa and who Romney says he expects to be the Democrat nominee.

"Are we going to do the same thing and put another long-serving U.S. senator up against him for him to talk about? Or are we going to put somebody -- I hope it's me -- somebody who has spent his lifetime not just in politics, not in Washington, but changing things," he said.

It remains to be seen whether his new message will sway voters in this state, who over the years have seen many presidential candidates promising change.

"Everybody is talking about change, it's the buzzword of this election," said Tom Horgan, 57, who attended Romney's event in Bedford but has yet to decide on a candidate and is leaning toward McCain.

"But it's really hard to change Washington," he added. "The fact that a candidate is saying they are going to bring change to D.C. is not something that is going to sway how I vote."

But his message resonated with Karen Whitaker, 47, who heard Romney speak in Derry. "I think he has the integrity to get through his list," she said.

(Editing by Stuart Grudgings)