Romney Tracker

Romney Said Obama Comment on Pakistan 'Ill-Considered'

By MIKE GLOVER
AP Political Writer

Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney said Friday that Democrat Barack Obama's warning to Pakistani leaders that he might use force to root out terrorists in that country were "ill-considered" and could hamper America's ability to build a coalition of countries against terrorism.

Romney spoke at a luncheon meeting of young Republicans in Des Moines, Iowa, and later with reporters who asked for his reaction to Obama's comments.

In a speech this week, the senator from Illinois issued a warning to Pakistani leaders that if they didn't do a better job of rooting out terrorists who use that country as a sanctuary, the U.S. might intervene with force.

Instead of issuing threats, the U.S. should work with nations to root out extremist forces which may exist, Romney said.

"We want as a civilized world to participate with other nations in this civilized effort to help those nations reject the extreme within them," Romney said. "That doesn't mean that our troops are going to go all over the world."

Romney said the remarks were not helpful to the American effort.

"I think his comments were ill-timed and ill-considered," Romney said.

Both the U.S. State Department and high-ranking Pakistani officials took exception Friday to recent comments on sensitive foreign policy matters by Obama and other the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates that have complicated U.S. efforts to overcome deep suspicion about the war on terrorism in the Muslim world.

In addition, Romney clarified his position on the future of the U.S. role in Iraq, a war that he's generally supported. Romney said while he doesn't think the U.S. should maintain a long-term presence in Iraq, it shouldn't set a timetable for withdrawing troops.

AP Interview: Obama Says Romney Distorts His Record

By PHILIP ELLIOTT
Associated Press Writer

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said on Thursday that Republican Mitt Romney was only trying to "score cheap political points" when he told a Colorado audience Obama wanted sex education for kindergartners.

"All I said was that I support the same laws that exist in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, in which local communities and parents can make decisions to provide children with the information they need to deal with sexual predators," Obama said in an AP Interview.

Romney on Wednesday targeted Obama for supporting a bill during his term in the Illinois state Senate that would have, among other things, provided age-appropriate sex education for all students.

"How much sex education is age appropriate for a 5-year-old? In my mind, zero is the right number," Romney said.

Obama said Romney was wrong to take the shot and incorrect on its basis.

"We have to deal with a coarsening of the culture and the over-sexualization of our young people. Look, I've got two daughters, 9 and 6 years old," Obama told the AP. "Of course, part of the coarsening of that culture is when politicians try to demagogue issues to score cheap political points."

"What we shouldn't do is to try to play a political football with these issues and express them in ways that are honest and truthful," Obama said. "Certainly, what we shouldn't do is engage in hypocrisy."

Obama's legislation would have altered Illinois' sex education standards to include instruction in any grade from kindergarten through 12th, rather than grades 6-12. It deleted language calling for sex education courses to honor "monogamous heterosexual marriage" and would have softened the state's emphasis on abstinence, while adding that any course materials should be "age and developmentally appropriate" and based on the latest scientific studies.

Obama was chairman of a state Senate committee that passed the legislation along party lines in March 2003. The full Senate never voted on the measure, and it ultimately died.

Romney himself once indicated support for similar programs that Obama supports.

In 2002, Romney told Planned Parenthood in a questionnaire that he also supported age-appropriate sex education. He checked yes to a question that asked: "Do you support the teaching of responsible, age-appropriate, factually accurate health and sexuality education, including information about both abstinence and contraception, in public schools?"

Obama said Romney should stay on his own side of the aisle.

"I think he should worry right now about his primary," Obama said.

Obama said candidates who exploit their play to the base miss a chance to lead.

"I want to be saying the same thing in the primary as I'm saying in the general election as I'm saying in the Oval Office. I don't want to make promises that I cannot keep. I don't want to simplify issues or demagogue issues simply to win short-term favor," Obama said. "We need to be straight with the American people."

But that's not to say presidential candidates shouldn't comment on culture.

"The president should use the bully pulpit to express our ideals and our values," Obama said. "I've talked about rap lyrics that can, often times, perpetuate misogyny and values that I think most of us don't want out kids to embrace."