Richard Tafoya
Sep 23rd, 2007, 09:51 PM
LA Times:
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-romney24sep24,0,1605175.story?coll=la-home-center
Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney stepped further down a treacherous path Sunday -- distancing himself from a Republican president who, while generally unpopular, retains the overwhelming support of most of those who will vote in the party's primaries.
In a nationally broadcast television ad and in comments at an appearance at Chapman University, Romney implicitly suggested that the party has gone off course in the years President Bush has been in office and Republicans -- until November's rebuke from voters -- controlled Congress as well.
When one questioner from the Chapman audience described Bush as "one of the most divisive presidents that we've had in a long, long time", the president received no words of support from Romney.
"In Washington, somehow we seem broken," the former Massachusetts governor said. "Washington is a mess."
In the ad, Romney struck the same note.
"It's time for Republicans to start acting like Republicans," he said, in words that echoed remarks at recent campaign events. "It's time for a change and change begins with us."
Romney is hardly alone in drawing some careful distance between himself and the current occupant of the White House. But the conflicts involved in doing so -- laying criticism on a Republican president during wartime, no less -- have been apparent.
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-romney24sep24,0,1605175.story?coll=la-home-center
Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney stepped further down a treacherous path Sunday -- distancing himself from a Republican president who, while generally unpopular, retains the overwhelming support of most of those who will vote in the party's primaries.
In a nationally broadcast television ad and in comments at an appearance at Chapman University, Romney implicitly suggested that the party has gone off course in the years President Bush has been in office and Republicans -- until November's rebuke from voters -- controlled Congress as well.
When one questioner from the Chapman audience described Bush as "one of the most divisive presidents that we've had in a long, long time", the president received no words of support from Romney.
"In Washington, somehow we seem broken," the former Massachusetts governor said. "Washington is a mess."
In the ad, Romney struck the same note.
"It's time for Republicans to start acting like Republicans," he said, in words that echoed remarks at recent campaign events. "It's time for a change and change begins with us."
Romney is hardly alone in drawing some careful distance between himself and the current occupant of the White House. But the conflicts involved in doing so -- laying criticism on a Republican president during wartime, no less -- have been apparent.