Savage to Mitt: Be extreme in defense of liberty

Talk host Michael Savage urged Mitt Romney campaigner Donald Trump today to warn the former Massachusetts governor that he will lose in November if he is unwilling to strongly confront President Obama.

"If there's anything I can implore you, beg you even, to tell him, he's got to understand that if he listens to those middle-of-the-road advisers the way McCain did, he's going to go by the way of McCain," Savage told the celebrity real estate magnate, referring to Arizona Sen. John McCain's unsuccessful 2008 run for the White House.

Savage pointed to Romney's indication in an interview yesterday with CNBC that, unlike his Republican opponents for the nomination, he would not attack Obama.

Romney said the nation needs "to come together to recognize that even though we have differing views about the country and about where we should go, we all love the country."

"I'm not going to say outrageous things about the president or about my opponents," the former governor emphasized.

Trump insisted that Romney will be tough on Obama.

"I believe he will be very, very strong and very tough, and he'll be very much opposed to what's happening with this president," Trump said.

Savage, pointing to issues such as the $500 million administration loan to the failing Solyndra "green energy" company, asked whether Romney would address "the gross corruption that we the people see on a daily basis."

"I think he will be very, very strong," Trump replied.

After the interview, Savage told a caller, however, that Romney says "nothing about so many of the issues that plague us today."

"Mitt Romney speaks in platitudes," Savage said. "He speaks in platitudes like a kid running for the presidency of a high school class."

Savage said Romney needs to heed the wisdom of the late Republican senator and presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, who famously said "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice" and "moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue."

"He has to get visceral, he has to get specific, and he has to be more extreme in the defense of liberty," Savage said of Romney.

Savage later explained that Romney "doesn't have to get mean and nasty and get insulting."

"He just has to talk about the corruption and graft and greed," Savage said.

The talk host read a line from his upcoming book "Trickle Down Tyranny" to underscore the stakes in the November election.

Savage prefaced it as "advice to the next president": "Economies can be rebuilt, armies can be repopulated, but once a nation's pride is gone, it can almost never be restored."

The book is scheduled to be published April 3 by Harper Collins.

"The Savage Nation" airs live Monday through Friday from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern. It can be heard online through stations such as KSTE in Sacramento.