Romney calls for working ‘across the aisle’ as cure for political polarization [View All]

[dtotire]

By Philip Rucker, Published: June 27



CONCORD, N.H. — Mitt Romney seems to have swallowed a dose of the civility that his rival Jon Huntsman Jr. is trying to inject into the Republican presidential race.

No, Romney hasn’t quieted his full-throated assault on President Obama’s economic record.



But during a Monday morning campaign swing through this early primary state, he issued a call for bipartisanship and said the American people would be better served if Republicans and Democrats worked together to find “common ground.”

Asked at a town hall meeting here what he would do to overcome the polarization in politics, Romney said: “My answer is work with the guys across the aisle. Do a bit like Ronald Reagan did. You know, he had lunches with Tip O’Neill.”

Then, referencing his four years as governor of overwhelmingly Democratic Massachusetts, Romney said: “I worked with Ted Kennedy, for Pete’s sake. . . . We found some common ground, and I think that has to happen in Washington.”


Earlier Monday, Romney made the same point at a roundtable of two dozen small-business owners in Salem.

“I didn’t attack my legislature,” he said. “I didn’t go out and say they’re a bunch of ‘Neanderthals’ or whatever word you might use to denigrate people.”



more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/romney-calls-for-working-across-the-aisle-as-cure-for-political-polarization/2011/06/27/AGQGvmnH_story.html?hpid=z9