Image from the 2012 Republican Convention web site. Not sure who this is, but apparently the typical young Republican is a white girl who wears voluminous country club scarves and dirndl skirts with no makeup and whose left hand floats unattached nearby

Since Tampa is the site of the Republican National Convention in August, one would think Pres. Obama would get an icy reception there. He recently found the opposite.

He drew an adoring and energetic crowd of nearly 3,000 people to Hillsborough Community College, receiving cheers of support after almost every sentence he uttered. Some people arrived at the HCC campus as early as 7:30 in the morning, camped out with folding chairs and deli sandwiches.

Obama used his first Florida 2012 campaign rally to focus on Romney’s self-portrayal as a job creator. Of course, Romney has created many, many jobs. The problem is that they are mainly in foreign countries.

In Tampa, he seized on a Washington Post article that the venture capital firm Romney used to lead, Bain Capital, invested in companies that specialized in sending jobs to low-wage countries. The president noted that he is calling for an end to tax breaks for shipping jobs and plants overseas.

“Not only does Gov. Romney disagree with this plan, today it was reported in the Washington Post that the companies his firm owned were ‘pioneers’ in the outsourcing of American jobs to places like China and India. Pioneers,” Obama said. “Tampa, we don’t need an outsourcing pioneer in the Oval Office. We need a president who will fight for American jobs and American manufacturing.”