Romney promises to ‘place America ... on a safer footing’

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney promised today to bolster the country’s naval fleet, strengthen U.S. ties with Mexico and restore funding to the missile defense program in his first major foreign policy speech of the 2012 campaign at The Citadel.

With gray-clad cadets surrounding him beneath a “Believe in America” banner, the former Massachusetts governor said: “God did not proclaim this country to be a nation of followers” and laid out a series of eight steps he would take during his first 100 days in office that he said would “place America -- and the world -- on safer footing.”

Underlying Romney’s prepared remarks were jabs at Democratic President Barack Obama. Romney entered the 2012 race as the nominal frontrunner for the GOP nomination and, until the entry into the race of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, focused most on challenging the president, instead of his Republican rivals.

Romney’s Charleston speech follows the blueprint of George W. Bush and John McCain, who both gave speeches at The Citadel in the months leading up to the S.C. Republican primary en route to winning the state and the GOP nomination.

Romney still leads in most of the national polls, but he trails Texas Gov. Rick Perry in South Carolina. But Romney, who finished a disappointing fourth in the 2008 S.C. primary, has closed the gap in the Palmetto State in recent weeks as Perry has had to defend his record on immigration in a series of televised, high-profile debates. More recently, Perry has been hammered for the racially offensive name of a Texas hunting camp that he used for years.