Obama congratulates Romney on GOP nod

In this May 8, 2012 file photo, Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks in Lansing, Mich. Romney is looking to pad his lead in the race for convention delegates in Republican presidential primaries Tuesday in Arkansas and Kentucky as he inches closer to the nomination he's all but certain to win.
In this May 8, 2012 file photo, Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks in Lansing, Mich. Romney is looking to pad his lead in the race for convention delegates in Republican presidential primaries Tuesday in Arkansas and Kentucky as he inches closer to the nomination he's all but certain to win.

— President Barack Obama called Mitt Romney on Wednesday to congratulate him on winning the Republican nomination, just as the Democrat’s campaign opened a new critique of Romney by focusing attention on his economic record as governor of Massachusetts.

The president told Romney “he looked forward to an important and healthy debate about America’s future,” Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said. Romney’s campaign said the call was “brief and cordial.” Both men wished each other’s families well during the race.

Romney’s primary win in Texas on Tuesday night pushed him past the 1,144-delegate threshold he needed to claim the nomination.

Obama took the formal step of congratulating his opponent even as his team looked to shift to the Massachusetts story under Romney. Romney’s campaign, meanwhile, was bringing attention to failed stimulus projects under Obama and federal money given to green energy companies like Solyndra, a solar firm that received hundreds of millions of dollars from the government only to go bankrupt.

Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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