Obama and Romney Offer a Possible Preview of Their First Debate
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Obama and Romney Offer a Possible Preview of Their First Debate: Mitt Romney criticized President Obama on Sunda..Obama and Romney Offer a Possible Preview of Their First Debate
Published: Monday, 24 Sep 2012 | 4:04 AM ET
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Mitt Romney criticized President Obama in remarks broadcast on Sunday for refusing to meet with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, during this week’s United Nations General Assembly meeting, saying it sends a message that the administration is distancing itself from an important Middle East ally.
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Mr. Obama, speaking in a separate interview on the same program on CBS, said he spoke frequently with Mr. Netanyahu and described Israel as “one of our closest allies in the region.”
He also challenged Mr. Romney, who has accused Mr. Obama of not standing up forcefully enough to Syria and Iran, to be more specific about his foreign policy plans. “So if Governor Romney is suggesting that we should start another war,” Mr. Obama said, “he should say so.”
The two presidential contenders carried out a shadow debate that offered a likely preview of the tone and substance of the first of their three face-to-face debates, which will be held in Denver on October 3.
Mr. Romney tried to undo some of the damage from his remarks to a group of wealthy donors that were recorded in May and released last week, in which he said that 47 percent of the American people paid no income taxes, were dependent on government and would never vote for him. Republican critics have called for a campaign shake-up in the wake of the furor over the remarks and other issues.
Mr. Romney said that he was essentially tied with Mr. Obama and that the campaign did not need a turnaround.
“That’s not the campaign,” he said of the contentious remarks. “That was me, right?”
He added: “I’ve got a very effective campaign. It’s doing a very good job. But not everything I say is elegant.”
Mr. Romney said he would consider means-testing for Social Security benefits for future retirees, and he put some distance between his plans for reshaping Medicaire as a voluntary voucher program and the proposal by his running mate,Representative Paul D. Ryan, to reduce payments to the health care program by some $700 billion.
“Yeah, he was going to use that money to reduce the budget deficit,” Mr. Romney said of Mr. Ryan. “I’m putting it back into Medicare, and I’m the guy running for president, not him.”
