Romney responds to McCain
Posted: Friday, January 25, 2008 5:00 PM by Mark Murray
From NBC/NJ's Erin McPike
PENSACOLA -- Romney responded to McCain's attacks today that he's a manager rather than a leader with a counterpunch of his own.
After opening his remarks at a rally here, he said, "I guess Sen. McCain didn't think as positively of that debate last night as I did, and so he's had to come back and flail a bit, trying to attack my record."
Romney ticked off the lines on his resume that he believes qualify him to take charge of national economic troubles (like his business background, gubernatorial experience, and Olympics leadership), he gave a proverbial raise of the eyebrows to McCain.
Romney said McCain thinks "being on the Commerce Committee in the Senate, that's what gives you the expertise you need to know about how the economy works." He added sarcastically, "Yeah, oh yeah," before citing several of McCain's quotes in the last several years in which the Arizona senator acknowledges his weakness in economic matters comparative to his knowledge of foreign and military issues.
"Now I think that's straight talk, all right?" Romney went on, "Washington talk says that somehow because you've been in Washington and you've been on a committee that you somehow know about how the jobs of this country are created."
Polls have shown the race tightening between the two men in the Sunshine State in recent days, with the two of them alternating leads. The battle is slated to get even more intense tonight when Florida Sen. Mel Martinez, the immediate past chairman of the Republican National Committee, announces his endorsement of McCain.
