Romney: McCain Is Engaged In "Washington Talk"
SARASOTA, FLA. -- Say goodbye to the niceties and gentle prodding of last night's GOP debate. Mitt Romney and John McCain have had enough of pulling their punches.
At an outdoor rally in front of about 400 people here, Romney used McCain's own words to respond to the Arizona senator's accusation that Romney lacks the kind of leadership experience America needs.
"I guess Senator McCain didn't think as positively of that debate last night as I did, and so he's had to come back and flail a bit, trying to attack my record, saying that my record — 25 years in the business world and three years running the Olympics, and then four years as governor of Massachusetts — that that doesn't qualify me to understand how the economy works," Romney said. "He says … being on the commerce committee in the Senate, that's what gives you the expertise you need to know about how the economy works."
Romney said that McCain has "detoured from what was some straight talk," as he gleefully read from two quotations in newspaper articles—one from 2005 and another from just last month — in which McCain suggested that his own knowledge of the economy was limited.
"That's straight talk," Romney said. "Now he's engaging in Washington talk. Washington talk says that somehow because you've been in Washington and you've been on a committee that you somehow — somehow know about how the jobs of this country are created. 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, D.C."