Romney in Charleston: We’ll make America safer
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney promised Friday to bolster the U.S. Navy and strengthen ties with Mexico, and hinted at a willingness to reverse U.S. troop withdrawals from Afghanistan in his first major foreign policy speech of the 2012 campaign.
With gray-clad cadets from The Citadel 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 front-runner for the GOP nomination and, until the entry of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, focused most on challenging the president, instead of his Republican rivals. Friday, Romney returned to that focus.The Republican’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 pro-military state and the GOP nomination.After a brief Perry bubble, Romney once again leads in most national polls, but he trails the Texan 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 high-profile, televised debates. More recently, Perry has been hammered for the racially offensive name of a Texas hunting camp that he used for years.
