> http://www.newsmax.com/politics/Romney_Jabs_Obama_Edwards/2007/11/21/...
>
> Romney Jabs at Obama, Edwards
>
> Wednesday, November 21, 2007
>
> WASHINGTON, Iowa -- Republican Mitt Romney said Wednesday it's fortunate
> Democrat Barack Obama isn't president, contending the Illinois senator would
> have pulled U.S. troops out of Iraq and left the country a safe haven for
> al-Qaida.
>
> Romney gave the response about Obama when challenged by a member of the
> audience who said President Bush illegally sent troops into Iraq and drew
> terrorists to the country. Romney told the man: "Don't forget that Congress
> authorized going into Iraq."
>
> "They had as much information as they needed to make that authorization," he
> told a packed coffee house in this tiny southeastern Iowa town. "The
> president did a superb job in knocking down Saddam Hussein and replacing his
> military."
>
> Romney acknowledged that the war has drawn extremists into Iraq. He then
> moved from answering the man's question about how he would resolve the
> situation in Iraq to focus criticism on Obama.
>
> "The key for me is making sure we do not have Iraq develop into a safe haven
> of the nature Afghanistan was under the Taliban. If we were to do what
> Barack Obama had suggested, which is just pull out, now that al-Qaida is
> there, al-Qaida would have had a dominant role potentially among the Sunnis
> in particular, and that would have made Afghanistan look like child's play
> as a place to launch attacks against us," Romney said.
>
> Earlier, he told the crowd that that the surge was working and that "It's
> fortunate we did not have Barack Obama as president. If he had been
> president, he'd have just pulled our troops out and al-Qaida would have been
> a safe haven in Iraq."
>
> Randy Wehr, of Washington, who is opposed to the war, asked the question of
> Romney.
>
> "I think his answer was a good canned answer. I think that is what they have
> to say at this point in time because we are involved in this war that is a
> very unpopular, and I think that the president and Cabinet and those people
> are 100 percent behind it for whatever reasons may be," he said, adding that
> he likes Romney, but hasn't decided yet whom to support. "We have to work
> our way out of this situation. There is no good way to get out of it."
>
> On a separate topic, Romney was asked about Democrat John Edwards' plan to
> cancel Congress' health care coverage if members don't approve universal
> health care within six months. Romney said such a move wouldn't "engender
> the kind of working relationship you hope to have between the two branches
> of government."
>
> "I must admit that the kind of heavy hand that he is talking about is not
> exactly what was deemed a separation of powers in our Constitution, and him
> locking doors, locking people's health insurance and so forth isn't the way
> to do it - if you don't get your way you are going to punish people," Romney
> said.
>
> He touted his record as governor of Massachusetts, where he pushed through a
> plan designed to reduce the ranks of uninsured people, once estimated at up
> to 500,000 in the state.
>
> "I am going to fight as I did in my state to get everybody health insurance,
> but not government insurance," he said.