Romney: Obama Off to ‘Rocky’ Start

The economic stimulus package being debated by Congress, his nomnees’ tax problems, and a comment about U.S. policy in the Middle East have given President Obama a “rocky” start to his White House tenure, former Massachusetts Gov. and GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney told TIME magazine in a recent interview.

“I think President Obama is off to a rocky start,” Romney said. “The theme of ‘Yes, we can’ seems to have been replaced with ‘Well, maybe we can’t.'”

Romney specifically took issue with House Democrats’ role in crafting the pending economic stimulus package and Obama’s comment in his first TV interview as president, with Arabic network Al-Arabiya, that the U.S. “All too often the United States starts by dictating” in engaging with Middle Eastern nations.

See Romney’s full comments on Obama, as excerpted from the TIME interview, below:

How do you think President Obama is doing so far? (See pictures of how Presidents age in office.)

I think President Obama is off to a rocky start. The theme “Yes, we can” seems to have been replaced with “Well, maybe we can’t.” I believe that with all the challenges America faces, the simple solutions and the hope that were sold by the Obama team are inadequate to the task ahead.

The cabinet appointments have been subject to a disappointing vetting process. His forays into foreign affairs produced a very unfortunate comment that America has been “dictating” to other nations.

And rather than proposing and driving through Congress his own economic stimulus plan, President Obama ceded the construction to House Democrats. They in turn have come up with a pork-laden, ineffective piece of legislation which I think Americans are increasingly recognizing will not solve the economic challenges we face.