During a speech, US Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has taken aim at rival US Republican presidential hopeful John McCain. He talked about reports on how John McCain had at one time considered signing onto John Kerry’s presidential ticket. This is the latest shot to paint John McCain as an inconsistent and unpredictable conservative.
“I do recall a story that he was thinking about being John Kerry’s running mate – he gave that some thought,” Mitt Romney said at a rally in West Palm Beach early morning. The former Massachusetts governor added: “Had someone asked me that question, there would not have been a nanosecond thought about it – It would’ve been an immediate laugh. And of course, if someone asked him if he would consider me as a running mate, he would have also laughed immediately.”
“So, we are different,” Romney had continued. He then added: “I’m conservative.”
Back in 2004, there have been reports that surfaced that John Kerry had informally asked John McCain if he would consider serving as his running mate. However, McCain said that he dismissed that notion immediately. Kerry said that it was McCain’s surrogates that floated the notion.
“His people…approached me to engage in a discussion about his potentially being on the ticket as vice president,” Kerry explained. He added: “So his people were active – let’s put it that way.”
The comments from Mitt Romney come one day before the Florida GOP primary. This is the season’s first primary that closes off both independents and cross-over Democrats. Both groups were vital to John McCain’s victories in New Hampshire and South Carolina.
Asides from McCain’s connection to Kerry, Romney also focused on McCain’s past record of teaming with Democrats on finance reform, immigration legislation, and an energy cap and trade-bill.
“If you ask people, ‘look at the three things Sen. McCain has done as a senator,’ if you want that kind of a liberal Democrat course as president, then you can vote for him,” Mitt Romney also addressed at the rally. He added: “But those three pieces of legislation, those aren’t conservative, those aren’t Republican, those are not the kind of leadership that we need as we go forward.”
However, McCain fired back at Romney’s record as governor calling him a flip-flopper.
“The truth is, Mitt Romney was a liberal governor of Massachusetts who raised taxes, imposed with Ted Kennedy a big government mandate health care plan that is now a quarter of a billion dollars in the red, and managed his state’s economy incompetently, leaving Massachusetts with less job growth than 47 other states,” McCain responded.
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