Romney, McCain Trade Barbs on Florida Campaign Trail

Jan 26, 08:00 PM

The two Republican frontrunners slung those accusations at each other in unusually stark terms Saturday, as the too-close-to-call presidential race in Florida grew more rancorous heading into Tuesday's election.

Neither man would back off nor apologize. McCain stayed on the attack all day and, though he exaggerated Romney's statements about withdrawing from the war, he succeeded in putting his opponent on the defensive.

Meantime, Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee, trailing McCain and Romney in most polls, played it nice in Central Florida.

The sharp exchange between Romney and McCain came on the second-to-last day of early voting in Florida, and highlighted the high stakes of the state's Republican election. It's the biggest of the early-state votes, a winner-take-all contest and one that could provide crucial momentum before the Feb. 5 multi-state primary. It's also a closed primary, open only to Republicans _ and not to the independents that helped McCain regain momentum with wins in New Hampshire and South Carolina.

The closed primary means it's a more conservative contest than in those states, and with McCain at odds with some in his party for his positions on immigration and stem-cell research, he sought to underscore his hawkish stance on the Iraq war.

Hoping for a big military turnout, the Vietnam War hero laced into Romney stop after stop, questioning his support for the war.

"If we surrender and wave a white flag, like Senator Clinton wants to do, and withdraw, as Governor Romney wanted to do, then there will be chaos, genocide, and the cost of American blood and treasure would be dramatically higher," McCain said in Fort Myers. "Now, one of my opponents wanted to set a date for withdrawal that would have meant disaster."

But Romney pointed out he never sought a specific date for withdrawal. And McCain's campaign couldn't provide the "date" that he claimed Romney wanted for withdrawal.

McCain based his attack on a 2007 ABC News interview in which Romney said there was "no question that the president and Prime Minister al-Maliki have to have a series of timetables and milestones that they speak about. But those shouldn't be for public pronouncement."

Romney accused McCain of twisting his words.

"I don't know why he's being dishonest," said Romney. "To say I have a specific date is simply wrong and it's dishonest. He should apologize."

McCain shot back that Romney should apologize to the troops.

Romney later said McCain was "desperate" to shift the focus of the campaign from the war to the economy. It's the number-one issue in the campaign in Florida, and a Miami Herald poll last week showed that voters are almost evenly split between the two candidates over who they favor more to fix the economy.

The he-said he-said contrasts starkly with the tone of the buttoned-down debate just two days before at Florida Atlantic University. Rather than attack Romney or question him aggressively, McCain lobbed a softball question at Huckabee _ who pulls conservative votes from Romney. And Romney did the same with Giuliani _ who draws moderate votes away from McCain.

Judging by the television coverage of Saturday's Florida campaign, McCain succeeded in knocking Romney off message. The millionaire's claim that he's best suited to fix the economy was drowned out, despite trips to a home in Land O' Lakes, a direct-mailing facility in St. Petersburg and a flight-simulator manufacturer in Pasco County.

The Democrats have decided not to campaign here because the vote is largely symbolic due to party rules concerning the early primary date. Campaign surrogates for Hillary Clinton and John Edwards put on small shows of support Saturday in South Florida, and Barack Obama's campaign was set to watch the South Carolina primary results at Tap Tap, a Haitian restaurant in Miami Beach, which Obama supporters said "bought a new television" for the occasion.

Despite the lack of organized campaigning, Democrats are casting early and absentee votes in far higher-than-expected numbers.

Huckabee is de-emphasizing _ though not discounting _ Florida. He lacks the money and organization to compete in the large state and is gunning for rural voters in states such as Georgia.

Huckabee is the only candidate who takes significant time talking about conservative social issues like abortion, and pressed ahead with his I'm-the-nice-guy theme while in Central Florida towns.

Giuliani _ who acknowledged he's now an underdog in Florida _ subtly got in the middle of the back-and-forth by noting that Romney says McCain lacks economic experience and that McCain says Romney's weak on foreign policy.

"I'm the candidate who combines both," the former New York City mayor said.

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(Miami Herald staff writers Oscar Corral and Lesley Clark contributed to this report.)

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(c) 2008, The Miami Herald.

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