Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Wednesday downplayed speculation that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie might jump into the race amid discontent with the GOP field, and worked to present himself as the party’s best option for 2012.
"You've got to find some excitement, some intrigue," Romney said on MSNBC’s "Morning Joe." "I can't control what other folks are going to do, I can only control what I'm going to do."
Romney's recent campaign strategy has been to emphasize his experience in the private business sector and promise that as president, he would prioritize bipartisanship. Romney criticized President Obama for failing to make a deliberate effort to reach out to Republicans behind the scenes.
“He instead attacks Congress, day in and day out,” Romney said. “You can’t attack someone you have to work with."
Obama appeared to campaign against Congress over the summer, blasting them for the gridlock during the debt-ceiling debate. He had particularly harsh words while on his Midwestern bus tour in August for the failure of people in Washington to “put country ahead of politics.”
Romney called it a lack of leadership experience. "It's all behind the scenes. It's one-on-one meetings,” Romney said, noting, as he has in the past, that when he was governor, the Massachusetts Legislature was 85 percent Democratic. Romney said he regularly invited members of leadership on the other side to private meetings in order to find common ground and get things done in the state.
Congress as a whole faced high disapproval ratings in national polls done in the aftermath of the protracted debt-ceiling debate. Romney seeks to walk the line between solid conservative and open-minded negotiator. However, he has faced some pushback from conservatives and members of the Tea Party movement who warn his conservative chops don’t pass their test.
Romney defended his conservative support base by bringing up his win at last weekend’s straw poll at the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference in Michigan, where he won 51 percent of the vote.
“I got the plurality of Michigan Tea Party votes; that's probably true in New Hampshire as well,” Romney said, although he simultaneously downplayed the meaning of early polls.
Romney also noted that his stance on immigration is probably considered more conservative than that of his main GOP rival, Rick Perry. Immigration is an area where Romney is seeking traction against Perry, who extended in-state tuition discounts to illegal immigrants as governor of Texas.
He had kinder words for presidential hopeful Herman Cain, whom he noted is the only other candidate with private business experience. Romney has said in the past that as president, he would consider Cain for a position in his Cabinet.
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