Mitt Romney auditioned for the Republican vice presidential nod Tuesday afternoon in Denver behind the iron gates in the RNC’s back-alley “Ministry of Truth,” where a passel of GOPers gathered to throw barbs at the Democrats convening across the highway.
On Wednesday, failed Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani is scheduled to rip apart the Dems on national security at the undisclosed, secretive location — 2810 N. Speer Blvd., to be exact — in North Denver.
Romney didn’t say a peep to numerous reporters who asked for clues on his vice presidential chances, but did what any good VP prospect does — attack.
The Detroit Freep’s Todd Spanger reports
He reserved the tough talk for Obama and his running mate, Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, saying while Biden has experience in foreign policy matters he has often been on the wrong side of history and that Obama simply doesn’t have the experience to lead a national economy in tough times.
“We want to make sure that with the glitz, the confetti and the celebrity, we talk about the facts,” Romney said before launching into a series of accusations that Obama has voted to raise — or at least not lower — taxes some 94 times and has supported raising taxes on people making as little as $42,000 a year.
Politico’s Jonathan Martin notes Romeny could face some of the same spin turning Joe Biden’s primary-season disagreements with Obama into attack ads.
Romney attacked McCain fiercely in the waning days before the decisive Florida primary for being left-leaning on such matters as climate change,immigration, taxes, and campaign finance reform. The two also sparred earlier in the GOP contest, with McCain often targeting Romney in debates with harsh attacks based upon his changed positions.
But today, Romney cast those sometimes-caustic debates as multi-candidate forums where there were disagreements among a variety of candidates
“You’ll find each of us describing our differences and surely you’ll find one or the other of us disagreeing with Sen. McCain on one issue or another,” Romney recalled of the debates.
And, in an implicit contrast to Biden’s past critique of Obama, Romney added: “But you’re never going to find somebody saying John McCain wasn’t qualified to be presiden of the United States.”
