(Image Source: Newsy)
BY ALYSSA CARTEE
ANCHOR LAUREN ZIMA
This week GOP contender Mitt Romney made his Sunday talk show debut as a candidate on “Fox News Sunday”. And he didn’t waste anytime throwing some political punches. First, he went after President Obama’s political record.
“And this president instead has gone to the people and attacked. It’s been a constant attack either against Republicans or against people in the business world or whatever group he somehow feels is opposed to his agenda. The right course for any leader is to work with other people.”
Romney then moved to fellow candidate Newt Gingrich, calling the former Speaker “unreliable” -- and defending his accusation last week that Gingrich is quote ‘zany’.
“At a critical time, he cut the legs out from underneath a very important message. Same was true with regard to cap and trade. This was being battled on Capitol Hill and the Speaker sat down with Nancy Pelosi and spoke in favor of legislation dealing with climate change. He has been unreliable in those settings. And as far as zany, I don’t think you’d call mirrors in space to light highways at night particularly practical. Or a lunar colony a practical idea. Not in a stage like this.”
Romney’s health care mandates have been attacked by opponents. When asked about the plan he implemented as Massachusetts’ governor, he defended it.
“Look, I like what our state did. It was right for our state. I mean whether the states pursue their paths as they think...
Wallace: “That isn’t what you said four years ago.”
“I like what we did. I’m proud of what we did. I’m not going to tell Texas what Texas has to do or California or New York. I think the ideas that we put forward work. We’ll see which parts of them work and which don’t but I’m not, as President of the United States going to do what this President did which is to impose his will on the entire nation.”
And he also defended his views on spending cuts, saying he doesn’t think they will harm the poor.
“In the same way as cutting welfare spending dramatically, I don’t think we hurt the poor. In the same way I think cutting Medicaid spending, by having it go to the states running it more efficiently with less fraud, I don’t think we’ll hurt the people that depend on that program for their health care.”
GOP candidate Jon Huntsman moved to third place in the polls this week. On CNN’s “State of the Union,” Hunstman explains why his climb was so slow.
“Early on, I think there were a lot of people who may have glossed over me as a candidate because I crossed a partisan line to serve as US ambassador to China. (FLASH) … And now a lot of those folks are coming around and their giving us a legitimate first look and they’re saying they forgot to take a look at my record, my history as governor. And as they reflect upon that, they’re saying he’s kind of the conservative we were looking for. He’s the consistent conservative as opposed to some of the others in the race who’ve been on both sides of the major issues of the day, who are running for Panderer in Chief more than they are anything else.”
Congresswoman Michele Bachmann made sure she was heard this week on “Meet the Press.” When asked about the President’s economic policies, Bachmann made an interesting comparison.
“That’s what people are frustrated with. They want us to act like a first world nation not like what president Barack Obama is doing. He’s acting like we’re a banana republic. We’ve got to get our act together and stop spending money we don’t have.”
She also got defensive when challenged on her numbers.
“This compares to President George W. Bush, back in 2007 our debt for the entire year was 160 billion...”
Gregory: “Congresswoman, that just misstates the record.” ...
“Then let me finish. David, do a comparison. I agree with you that there was too much money spent under George W. Bush. But for the year 2007, the debt for the year was 160 billion. The debt for this last year was about 1.5 trillion. That’s almost 10 times more in debt than George Bush.”
Also on CBS: Newt Gingrich explains why he thinks the 2012 election is about philosophical differences.
“The reason we are so deadlocked is that you have an elite that still has an enormous amount of power and they would appoint very radical judges. You have the vast bulk of the American people who are opposed to that but they don’t have enough power yet to stop the elite. And one of the key questions in 2012 is simple. Do you want to move toward American exceptionalism, reassert the constitution, reassert the nature of America? Or do you in fact want to become a secular, European bureaucratic socialist society?”
The Des Moines Register endorsed Mitt Romney and Ron Paul is surging in the polls. The race is not getting any clearer and the caucus is only 16 days away.
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