Romney blasts Obama on war, policy, economic fronts

Mitt Romney

WASHINGTON – Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney today took to the podium at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington looking poised, confident and presidential. And he blasted the Barack Obama administration on war, policy and economic fronts.

And for not even recognizing the severity of some of the difficulties the nation faces.

Romney suggested Obama's response to criticism has been to say the economy could have been worse without the administration's economic stimulus plans.

"It could be worse?" Romney asked incredulously. "This is the leader of the free world's answer to the greatest job loss since the Great Depression? What's next? Let them eat cake?

"Oh, excuse me. Organic cake," he said.

He said it's going to take more than rhetoric from a politician behind a teleprompter to "put Americans back to work – it's going to take a new president.

"Let me make this very clear. If I decide to run for president, it won't take me two years to wake up to the job crisis threatening America," he said. "And I won't be asking Tim Geithner how the economy works – or Larry Summers how to start a business."

Introducing what sounded like a future presidential campaign theme echoing Ronald Reagan, Romney called for the audience to believe in America.

"We believe in freedom, in opportunity," he said. "We believe in free enterprise and capitalism. We believe in the American dream. And we believe that the principles that made America the leader of the world today are the very principles that will keep America the leader of the world tomorrow."

He blasted Obama for what Romney characterized as a public relations move to the center in an attempt to mask Obama’s unrelenting leftist politics.

"What we were hearing was not just a new and improved Barack Obama; it was an entirely different Barack Obama," Romney said. "But make no mistake: What we are watching is not Brave New World; what we're watching is Groundhog Day!"

He said that instead of Saul Alinsky, the Obama administration was now serving up GE's Jeffrey Immelt, reminding the audience that Obama "replaced his Chicago politician chief of staff, Rahm Emmanuel, with a fresh face from Chicago, named Daley."

Romney attacked Obama’s foreign policy, charging that, "An uncertain world has been made more dangerous by the lack of clear direction from a weak president."

Romney faulted the Obama administration on nearly all fronts.

"The president who touted his personal experience as giving him special insight into foreign affairs was caught unprepared when Iranian citizens rose up against oppression. His proposed policy of engagement with Iran and North Korea won him the Nobel Peace Prize. How's that worked out?"

He noted that, "Iran armed Hezbollah and Hamas and is rushing toward nuclear weapons. North Korea fired missiles, tested nukes, sunk a South Korean ship and shelled a South Korean island."

Likewise, Obama's war leadership lacks, he said.

"The world – and our valiant troops – watched in confusion as the president announced that he intended to win the war in Afghanistan, as long as it didn't go much beyond August of 2011. And while the Taliban may not have an air force or sophisticated drones, it's safe to say they do have calendars."

Regarding Obama's "reset program" with Russia, Romney insisted the policy consisted of Obama abandoning our missile defense in Poland and signing a one-sided nuclear treaty with Russia.

"The cause of liberty cannot endure much more of his 'they get, we give' diplomacy!" Romney said. "I surely hope that at some point in the near future, the president will finally be able to construct a foreign policy, any foreign policy.”

On the economy, Romney said, "Here at home, Obama’s response to the economic crisis was the most expensive failed social experiment in modern history," he said. "He guaranteed that unemployment wouldn't go beyond 8 percent and he watched millions and millions of Americans lose their jobs, lose their homes and lose their hope."

Romney blasted the Obama administration on failing to create enough jobs to reduce unemployment below 9 percent.

"President Barack Obama has stood watch over the greatest job loss in modern American history," he said. "And that, my friends, is one inconvenient truth that will haunt this president throughout history."

Romney suggested there are more men and women out of work in America than there are people working in Canada and that in the month of January, Canada created more new jobs than did the U.S.

"You've seen the heartbreaking photos and videos of the jobs fairs around the country, where thousands show up to stand in line all day just to have a chance to compete for a few job openings that probably aren't as good as the job they held two years ago?" Romney asked rhetorically.

"These job fairs and unemployment lines are President Obama's Hoovervilles," he concluded.

"The president is trying to show that he finally gets it – that he really isn't a liberal after all. But his idea of conservative economic policy is to invite some corporate CEOs to the White House for an evening of table talk. I'm sorry Mr. President, but that's not a policy, it's a dinner party," he said.