Mitt Romney: Obama should get ready to leave White House

US Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has told incumbent President Barack Obama to “start packing” to leave the White House.
“Well, start packing. That’s what I’d like to say,” 65-year-old Romney said in unprecedented remarks in an interview with ABC News when asked if he had something to say to the president. 

“Obviously we have a very different view. The President, I’m sure, wants another four years, but the first few didn’t go so well,” he said. 

Romney has recently sharpened his attacks on Obama. 

He criticized Obama’s economic policies as failing to help the American people and said, “They have not helped get jobs, they have not helped raise incomes and they’ve added trillions of dollars of debt.” 

Even though former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul continue their bids for the nomination, Romney is generally considered the presumptive nominee after the withdrawal of his chief rival Rick Santorum. 

The Republican Party’s convention in late August will officially determine the nominee. The eventual winner will contend with President Obama for the White House in November. 

The American president is not elected by the people’s direct votes to candidates. In fact, the US is the only country in the world where the president is not elected by the citizens directly. 

In the US presidential election, citizens cast ballots for a slate of members of the Electoral College. These electors in turn elect the president. The final result is based on adding together the number of the votes in every state.