Romney's got McCain's back in Denver
The GOP's Mitt Romney, in Denver Tuesday during the Democratic National Convention, challenged his party's rivals to 'talk about radical, violent jihadism and the threat it poses to the civilized world.'
Andy Nelson/The Christian Science Monitor/File
Denver – Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney took the Republican fight to Denver this week, amid speculation that he may be tapped as the No. 2 on the GOP presidential ticket.
"Barack Obama is a fine person, but I don't think he is ready to be president," he said of the Democrats' presumed nominee at a lunch for reporters sponsored by The Christian Science Monitor.
"I don't think he has the judgment which is developed through years of experience in life that prepares him for assuming the title of president of the United States and commanding the most powerful military and guiding the most powerful economy.”
Moreover, Senator Obama and Sen. John McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee, offer sharply different views of how the economy works – and how the world works, Mr. Romney said.
On the economy: Obama proposes big tax increases on individuals, corporations, capital gains, and Social Security; new restrictions on trade; and the pursuit of alternative sources of energy, but without nuclear energy or offshore drilling.
Senator McCain would lower taxes, open markets to more trade, and "take a bite out of the three-quarters of a trillion [dollars] the US sends overseas for energy" by boosting nuclear power and offshore drilling, he says.
On foreign policy: Obama would "sit down with the world's worst actors, without condition, and talk things out," Romney says, noting that the Illinois senator has since backed off that position somewhat.
McCain’s view, he adds, is that "we speak first with our friends" and develop a league of democracies to stand up to the threat of "radical, violent Islam or jihadism" and "an expansionist, authoritarian Russia."
