Demos may mirror Mitt in attacking McCain

WASHINGTON — It always sounded innocuous enough, tucked into the adjectives Mitt Romney would rattle off when he described the qualities for the next president.

Wisdom, optimism and the right temperament, said the former Republican presidential candidate.

There was no doubt whom Romney was referring to — rival and likely GOP nominee John McCain, whose short-fuse temper is widely known, especially among his Senate colleagues.

The dig that McCain lacks the comportment to be commander in chief was part of the playbook that Romney used in his unsuccessful bid to secure the Republican nomination. Now it provides a piece of the playbook for either Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton or Sen. Barack Obama in a general election campaign against the four-term Arizona senator.

Among the weaknesses that Romney criticized:

• McCain's admission that he was better versed in foreign affairs and military matters than economic issues.

• McCain's flip-flops both philosophically and on specific issues.

• McCain's alignment with Democrats on taxes, illegal immigration, campaign finance and environmental issues.

Romney stopped short of labeling McCain a liberal, but he said McCain's history of agreements with Democrats would leave voters little more than intangibles with which to distinguish between the Democratic and Republican nominees.

While he never defined those intangibles, Romney suggested McCain would be a liability in a race in which the 71-year-old would be trying to become the oldest person ever elected president, while Clinton was trying to become the first female president and Obama, the first black.

Romney himself never attacked McCain's age or temperament directly, but his campaign aides were not shy about highlighting McCain's volcanic temper.

"Choosing to ignore substance and relevant issues, the McCain way has always been to attack opponents in a personal manner," read a Jan. 5 e-mail from Romney press secretary Kevin Madden.

McCain has said such outbursts were understandable as he fought pork-barrel spending or clashed passionately with his rivals.

As polls showed voters more concerned about the economy than other issues, Romney argued that a key difference between him and McCain was in their financial ability.