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Romney to McCain: "Welcome to Iowa, Senator."
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ShareJanuary 02, 2008 3:27 PM
ABC's Matt Stuart, John Berman, and Ursula Fahy Report: Fmr. MA Gov. Mitt Romney went after chief rivals Sen. John McCain and Gov. Mike Huckabee Wednesday in Iowa, suggesting McCain lacked leadership skills and that Huckabee wasn't focused on the Iowa caucuses.
While Romney has avoided speaking ill of his rivals on the stump, Romney went straight for McCain before even opening up to questions from reporters. Poking fun at McCain spending relatively little time in Iowa the last few days, Romney quipped "Welcome to Iowa senator," before claiming that "he was just wrong to vote against the bush tax cuts twice. He continues to defend that vote."
When asked why he went after McCain at the start of his comments, Romney said, "I figured you guys would talk to me about Mike Huckabee so I took the chance to talk about John McCain." Both supporters surrounding Romney and reporters burst into laughter.
Romney's more negative attack on McCain came only later, after a question about McCain's new ad in New Hampshire. Romney responded, suggesting McCain lacked leadership skills, saying that he has been "in the senate for 25 years or more. And people have a lot of talk there, a lot of suggestions about what other people ought to do. But I've actually been leading during that time." Romney cited his experience running the Olympics in 2002 and serving as Governor of Massachusetts.
Asked about Gov. Huckabee appearing on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Romney held no punches. "I guess he's more focused on the caucus in LA than the caucus in Iowa."
While just a few days ago Romney said of the Iowa caucuses "I think I'm going to win," Romney was more reserved in his comments today, saying only that he's "a leading contender."
Branding himself as a leader from "the private sector," Romney frequently claims that his experience in business is applicable to that of President, saying the United States is similar to "the largest corporation in the world." Today, when asked how business didn't relate politics, Romney said "politics is totally different than business," but arguing that "the process of making important decisions is very similar."
When Romney was asked a more open ended question about what he was thinking at this point, Romney first joked that as the stop was in a middle school library he felt "like getting out all of our blankets and taking a little nap here," before stating his excitement before the caucuses.
"It's like Christmas morning and you want to run down and open the present and see what you got," Romney said, "and hope it's not a lump of coal."
January 2, 2008 in Palin, Sarah | Permalink | User Comments (1)
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Rush Limbaugh may have just had a MAJOR affect on who gets the nomination by saying that Huckabee and McCain were NOT conservative. Politico's banner story is on this and Drudge has linked to it as well.
Posted by: Cory | Jan 2, 2008 4:40:16 PM
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