McCain Picks up attacks on Romney in 08 Florida Primary

Following a mostly cordial debate Thursday night in Boca Raton, McCain called a press conference Friday morning to slap down Romney’s argument that his time in the private sector makes him equipped to handle the economic problems that have Washington scrambling to head off a potential recession.

“I think everybody knows the difference between leadership and management,” McCain said. “You can hire managers all the time … leadership is people who inspire.”

Asked what he was specifically suggesting about Romney in 08 election rhetoric, McCain answered, “I’m suggesting Gov. Romney is touting his qualities and his experience and resume as a manager. I am telling the American people, and they know it, that I am a leader.”

Just as the GOP candidates were starting to go easy on each other, John McCain cranked up the volume against his top Florida competitor, Mitt Romney in 08 Florida Primaries, on Friday, suggesting the former venture capitalist is more of a desk jockey than a president.

His new rhetorical tack comes as Romney swiftly catches up to him in Florida polls following McCain’s momentum building victories in South Carolina and New Hampshire. The GOP race has sharply turned from focusing on national security and illegal immigration toward the economy, a twist Romney has used to his advantage.

Even though McCain has tried to look past the primaries and cast himself as the most formidable challenger in the general election, the Tuesday vote is the last major contest before Super Tuesday Feb. 5, making it a critical opportunity to pick up steam on the road to the nomination.

Rudy Giuliani, who’s staked his campaign on Florida, has recently been idling in third in state polls. But poll averages show McCain and Romney in 08 elections just fractions of a point apart.

Romney is sticking to the economic argument, asserting Friday in Miami that “the only way to get America on track economically is to have a president who actually understands how the economy works.”

Promises to turn around the economy and fix a broken Washington have driven his campaign of late and were major themes before he won Michigan and Nevada.

He responded to McCain’s attacks at a rally in Pensacola, Fla., saying, “I guess Senator McCain didn’t think as positively about last night’s debate as I did.”

He ridiculed his competitor as a Washington insider who’s admitted he’s not an expert on the economy.

“That’s straight talk,” Romney said. “Now he’s engaging in Washington talk … And I’ll tell you this — somebody who’s been in the real economy, who’s created real jobs, someone who’s been on Main Street knows a lot more about the jobs and the economy of this nation than someone who’s spent his time in K Street and in Washington, DC.”

Romney headed the 2002 Winter Olympic Games and was Massachusetts governor from 2003 to 2007, but spent most of his career as a business consultant and later founded Bain Capital.

The two Florida frontrunners have started going at it in advertisements, too. The campaigns launched dueling Web ads Thursday night that mocked each other to the backdrop of the waltz “The Blue Danube,” a popular tune among political ad-makers.

“Mitt Romney says he’s a leader, but how do we know which direction he wants to lead? Mitt Romney seems to change positions like the wind,” a McCain ad says.

McCain also picked up the endorsement of Florida Sen. Mel Martinez Friday. Martinez was born in Cuba and his endorsement could give the Arizona senator a boost with the state’s Cuban Americans, a cross-section Giuliani was trying to court.

Giuliani still says he’s going to win Tuesday, and on Friday joined the chorus of criticism. He struck at both McCain and Romney for not supporting tax cuts consistently, and for not fully embracing a disaster relief fund that he’s been promoting.

Mike Huckabee, who won the Iowa caucuses, is polling behind Giuliani in Florida, but says he hasn’t given up on the state.

A little Romney Bashing? We'll even take on Chuck if we have to.

"Whoever wins Iowa could be the next president of the United States," said Democratic consultant Stephanie Cutter, adding that a compressed election schedule may put a premium on momentum this year "and Iowa can be a rocket booster."

Much is at stake: Iowa kicks off the election process Thursday with Democratic and Republican caucuses that could propel two candidates to the nomination.

Mike Huckabee says John McCain is a hero. McCain says Huckabee is a good man. And they both seem to agree on this: Mitt Romney is neither.

The Republican rivals joined Sunday to criticize Romney - McCain in New Hampshire called him a waffler, and Huckabee in Iowa questioned whether he can be trusted with the presidency, a sign of Romney's strength in both states.

Romney's camp accused the hard-charging Huckabee of "testiness and irritability," a reflection of the brass-knuckles phase of the most open presidential race in half a century.

New Hampshire votes just five days after Iowa.

The dynamics aren't quite the same on the Republican side, but GOP consultant Scott Reed said Iowa "is going to make or break three-quarters of all the candidates."

Polls show that Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards are tied for the lead in Iowa. Clinton and Obama are bunched closely in New Hampshire, too, where voters often are influenced by the results in Iowa.

The Democratic winner in Iowa will be hard to stop, especially if it's a well-funded Clinton or Obama.

As six candidates offered their closing messages on the morning talk shows, Obama acknowledged that the criticism about lack of experience in Washington might be taking a toll.

"That may have some effect, but ultimately I'm putting my faith in the people of Iowa and the people of America that they want something better," Obama told NBC's Meet the Press.

Playing the experience card, Clinton told ABC's This Week that as first lady from 1993-2001 she was "intimately involved in so much that went on in the White House, here at home and around the world."

Identity Crisis In Republican Party: Will it be Romney in 08?

The former governor of Massachusetts used his local ties to Michigan, a state in which he spent the first 19 years of his life, as well as populist anti-Washington rhetoric to achieve an unexpectedly commanding victory over his main rival, John McCain. The final results put Romney on 39%, McCain on 30% and Mike Huckabee on 16%.

The crisis of identity within the heart of the US Republican party has sharply intensified with the victory in the Michigan primary on Tuesday night of Mitt Romney - a result which has thrown the race for the presidential nomination wide open and left the party mired in confusion about the way ahead.

The Michigan result leaves the Republicans with no clear frontrunner and none of the momentum from early races that traditionally drives a candidate towards the finishing line. The first three major elections have had three separate winners - Huckabee in Iowa, McCain in New Hampshire and now Romney in Michigan.

"The race has moved from a sprint to a marathon," the chairman of the Michigan Republican party, Saulius Anuzis, told the Guardian.

All eyes now turn to Saturday's Republican primary in South Carolina. But even in that southern state the party appears to be in the mood more for a muddle than a coronation. Both Huckabee, the ordained Baptist minister and former governor of Arkansas, and McCain, senator for Arizona, are vowing they will win.

Romney, McCain, Huckabee and Fred Thompson were all out on the stump throughout the state yesterday. South Carolina is the first of the contests to be held in the South and the state has a reputation for political brutality and dirty tricks. An early taste came in a flier being distributed by a group calling itself Vietnam Veterans Against John McCain claiming he betrayed his fellow PoWs during his years in jail in Hanoi.

Huckabee said he would "put a flag in the ground here Saturday", while McCain used his concession speech on Tuesday night to declare that "starting tomorrow, we're going to win South Carolina".

An Article by The Trail on Romney in 08 Elections

Steve Schmidt, a top McCain strategist, attributed yesterday's loss to "Mitt Romney's pandering up in Michigan" by promising what Schmidt called a "$100 billion bailout of the auto industry...Mitt Romney should explain to the rest of the country how he's going to pay for it."

The morning after John McCain lost the Michigan primary to Mitt Romney, his team rolled out a new attack on the former Massachusetts governor, even likening him to John Kerry as a flip-flopper.

While Romney has proposed a five-year, $20 billion-a-year effort to revitalize the ailing auto industry, the Arizona senator has emphasized worker retraining and research into green technologies. Schmidt would not put a price tag on that but minimized the retraining plan as a consolidation of existing programs.

Speaking to reporters after a rally here today, McCain declined to use the word "pandering" but said of Romney: "By promising that amount of money to the auto industry, at least he ought to be able to say where it's going to come from." McCain cited statistics purporting to show that Massachusetts lagged the nation in economic growth during Romney's four-year term.

Asked why he began the Greenville rally by touting his record of opposing abortion, McCain said it is an important issue here and that "we know there are phone calls being made that I am pro-choice."

Schmidt, a top official in President Bush's reelection campaign, told reporters earlier today that Romney's shifting positions are reminiscent of Kerry, who was dogged by charges of flip-flopping in 2004. "When you have a candidate like Mitt Romney who's been on both sides of every issue...it's a tremendous liability in a general election," he said.

Schmidt broadened the verbal assault to include what he called Romney's "rather weak record as governor of Massachusetts," including sluggish job growth and a $700 million boost in taxes and fees, and said Romney's record of trimming jobs as a corporate takeover artist would also be fair game.

The remarks, significantly harsher than what McCain has said, clearly reflect an effort to rough up Romney and blunt any momentum he may have garnered heading into Saturday's South Carolina primary. Although McCain campaigned hard in Michigan, Schmidt dismissed the victory by Romney, who grew up there, as a triumph by a "native son."

The McCain camp was rather annoyed last night when Romney gave his victory speech soon after the networks projected him the winner at 9 p.m., prompting some cable networks to break away from McCain's remarks. Protocol usually dictates that the winner wait until the losing candidates have thanked their supporters.

"Totally classless," Schmidt said.