Romney tries out for attack dog role in Denver

Mitt Romney came to Denver on Tuesday to stoke disunity among Democrats and show off his skills in attacking nominee-in-waiting Barack Obama and his choice for the No. 2 slot, Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.). 

The former governor of Massachusetts was auditioning for the job of Republican candidate John McCain’s running mate, not that he would acknowledge or discuss his chances in the veepstakes.

{mosads}“I’ve got nothing for you on the vice presidential front,” Romney told reporters gathered at a brunch hosted by The Christian Science Monitor. “I’m in no way trying to promote my qualifications to someplace on the ticket.”

McCain reportedly has not settled on a choice for vice president, even though he could announce his decision as early as Friday as a way to step on Obama's bounce in the polls, which usually comes after a candidate's convention.

Romney is walking a fine line in Denver. He wants to show off his attack-dog skills but also his willingness to accept a subservient place on the ticket. He also undoubtedly knows that another leading veep contender, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, is scheduled to play the role of attack dog at the convention city on Thursday.

Romney said he had not spoken to McCain about being vice president, but refused to say whether the campaign had asked for financial and personal information for vetting purposes.

That didn’t stop reporters, who continued to pursue the subject relentlessly.

“I’m not running for anything,” insisted Romney, who just months ago was McCain’s fiercest rival for the GOP nomination.

Despite the heated primary, Romney said he has always respected McCain’s service to his country and personal sacrifice in a Vietnamese prison camp. He said the two became friends during a two-and-a-half-day visit to McCain’s Sedona, Ariz., home after McCain won the nomination. Romney was one of 20 Republicans invited.

During that visit, Romney said, he got to see the more personal, relaxed side of John McCain while the Arizona senator grilled in the backyard and interacted with his children.

“We got along very well,” Romney recalled. “I was impressed with the man and the father.”

Romney is in Denver as part of a team of McCain surrogates on hand to counter Democratic convention spin and try to wedge themselves into the four-day Democratic-saturated news hole.

He wasted no time attacking the Democratic ticket and fanning the flames of resentment among Hillary Clinton supporters who are still angry that she was passed over for the No. 2 spot.

“The questions will linger in the hearts and minds of Clinton supporters about why she wasn’t chosen,” Romney said. “Her experience was more extensive than [Biden's]. I have long said she would have been the strongest running mate.”

Heaping additional criticism on Obama’s choice of Biden as a running mate, Romney said, “It was designed to shore up Obama’s foot faults."

But Romney said Biden’s 30 years of foreign policy experience amounted to 30 years of foreign policy mistakes. The veteran Delaware senator, he said, opposed the U.S. military build-up during the Cold War, arguing that it would make the Soviet Union respond and become stronger — one of several errors over the years.

“[Biden] also said we shouldn’t get Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait during the first Gulf War — that was wrong,” Romney said.

Romney defended McCain’s age by arguing that it is anything but a liability because voters value experience in times of uncertainty. When the issue of McCain’s gaffe about not knowing how many homes he owns came up, Romney counter-attacked by blasting convicted felon Tony

Rezko’s alleged role in the purchase of the Obama family home.

“I don’t think demonizing wealth works,” he said. “Any effort to suggest that [McCain] is a man who doesn’t know the American people — a man who served his country and spent five years in a prison camp — it’s just not going to work. This is the kind of true-blood American hero that people respect and admire.”

Romney joined GOP Reps. Eric Cantor (Va.), Lincoln Diaz-Balart (Fla.) and Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.) at a press conference labeled “Not Ready ’08.”

The foursome stood behind a lectern with an image of Obama with one arm raised against the background of a mountainous skyline. Underneath were the words "A mile-high, an inch deep."

The Republicans repeatedly hammered on the message that Obama is too inexperienced to be president and exploited anger among Clinton supporters.

“His choice [for vice president] show weakness and a lack of confidence in himself,” said Diaz-Balart.

He cited President John F. Kennedy’s choice of Lyndon Johnson as a running mate as an example of a successful ending to a bruising primary fight.

“To see someone who had some 50 percent of the Democratic vote not be chosen and not even be vetted with the other candidates? I can see why some people are upset,” said Diaz-Balart. “Our party is united. I’m not so sure their party is united.”

Cantor capitalized on the House Republicans’ protest over high gas prices on the House floor during the August recess to argue that Democrats would rather play politics than find solutions for some of the most pressing problems facing Americans.

“On energy, this Democratic Congress has refused to act,” he said. “The list of excuses goes on and on.”

He said some of his colleagues plan to skip the Republican convention in St. Paul, Minn., next week to continue the House protest over drilling and gas prices.

Blackburn blasted the Democratic convention for failing to produce a clear message so far, a charge previously expressed by former Clinton strategist James Carville.