WASHINGTON — Republican activists are incredulous: Why can’t Republican Mitt Romney seem to break open a tight race with President Barack Obama given the nation’s sluggish economy and conservative enthusiasm to beat the Democrat? “He ought to be killing Obama, and he’s clearly not doing that,” said 32-year-old R.J. Robinson, one of the thousands of activists attending the annual Values Voters Summit this weekend. “He should be doing better.” Added Mike Garner, a 27-year-old hawking “Reagan was right” buttons at the meeting: “If Romney loses this election, the party really needs to do some soul-searching.” Their sentiments were echoed in interviews with more than a dozen GOP activists and social conservative leaders who attended the annual gathering focused on social and cultural issues and sponsored by the Family Research Council. The summit was filled with rhetoric meant to fire up the party’s base voters. Romney needs them to turn out in force at the polls in November and, between now a ...
WASHINGTON — Republican Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama are trading tough words over the handling of foreign attacks on U.S. diplomatic missions in the Middle East, injecting foreign policy in to a presidential campaign that has focused on a sour economy. Romney accused the Obama administration of showing weakness in the attack that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and three American members of his staff. Romney blasted the initial statement from the U.S. Embassy in Cairo as disgraceful and “akin to apology,” adding later, “It’s never too early for the United States government to condemn attacks on Americans and to defend our values.” However, the embassy statement came before the protesters had breached the embassy’s walls and was not an apology but an affirmation of the American policy of religious tolerance and respect. A statement by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton minutes before Romney’s was released condemned the attack in Libya and said there w...
