Mitt Romney: Attacks Make Me Stronger

Mitt Romney said Wednesday that attacks from within the Republican Party will toughen him for the general election, disagreeing slightly with his surrogate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

"If you get attacked by someone, it doesn’t make you better off," Romney told Fox News in an interview set to air Wednesday evening. "It toughens you up and there are two sides to that -- one we have exposed a lot of the attacks, I am sure the Obama people will pick up on them and run with it themselves, but I think I’m tougher as a result of this. I think the other guys are as well. We’ll come united once this is all over, and we are going to get behind our nominee.”

McCain said on Sunday that the GOP campaign, and in particular the debates, could be hurting the party's presidential candidates in the long haul.

"I think these continuing debates, and the tenor of the debates, which have turned into mud wrestling, have certainly raised the unfavorables of the candidate," he said on CNN's "State of the Union." "I don't have any doubt about that."

Romney agreed with McCain that super PACs may extend the primary process, giving more chances for the candidates to go after each other instead of President Barack Obama.

"I think the process is going to go on longer as a result of the super PAC dollars that are going to come in," Romney told Fox News. "But I recognize it down the road we are going to get attacked by a billion-dollar Obama machine and some respects this toughens us up a bit, and gets the attacks out there."

Romney went into his own attack when discussing the Rick Santorum campaign robocalls to Democrats in Michigan ahead of the Tuesday primary there. The Romney campaign hammered on the calls Wednesday, insisting Santorum wanted liberal Democrats to vote to skew results.

"They got the news from Michael Moore to Barack Obama's team to [say] 'Go play mischief in the Republican Party. Vote against Mitt Romney and try to give this to Rick Santorum,'" Romney said. "They don’t want to face me in the fall. They would rather face Rick Santorum, so they came in large numbers and voted for Rick. I think that was a huge mistake on his part. Republicans saw right through that."

Comments

[CharlieVer]

10:11 PM on 03/02/2012

You know... the more I think about this, the less logical it becomes. If attacks make you stronger, than why does anybody attack anybody? Mitt attacks Gingrich, so it makes Gingrich stronger? If he attacks Santorum, it makes Santorum stronger? Why don't they, then, make their opponents weaker by saying NICE things about them? A Mitt Romney ad should say something like, "I like Ron Paul, and I think you should vote for him instead of me. I'm Mitt Romney and I approve this message." In theory, that would make Ron Paul WEAKER and make Mitt Romney STRONGER, because if he ATTACKED the other guy, it would make the other guy STRONGER, right? If attacks make you stronger, than why does anybody attack anybody? Did the Willy Horton attacks make Dukakis stronger? As I recall, it cost him the election. Or how about those Swift Boat guys? Did they make John Kerry stronger? There's something wrong with this logic here. If attacks make you stronger, then nobody would use them... if attacks make you stronger, than you should attack yourself, or have your own SuperPac attack you. You should get up there and say, "I'm Mitt Romney, and I'm an the worst candidate ever. I'm a serial killer. I hate babies and kittens. People who vote for me need their heads examined." That way, you'd make yourself stronger by attacking yourself.

[CharlieVer]

10:04 PM on 03/02/2012

There's a tee shirt that's popular out there with President Obama as a super-hero, his bulging chest popping out with the letter "O" on it. If constant, repeated attacks, many of them stupid, false and idiotic, getting constantly pummeled on a person, attacks on his race, attacks on his birthplace, attacks calling him a "socialist" which is clearly false, attacks claiming that he's out to destroy the world... if attacks make you STRONGER, then the Republican party must be bound and determined to turn President Obama into the MAN OF STEEL, determined to make him INDESTRUCTIBLE, able to LEAP TALL BUILDINGS, BEND STEEL IN HIS BARE HANDS... if attacks are so great, then they must really love Obama because they've turned him into a power impossible to stop.

[joeyfoto]

12:38 AM on 03/02/2012

The attacks may be making Mittens stronger, but they don't seem to be making him any smarter.

[wonderfullone]

11:11 PM on 03/01/2012

If Willard says that the attacks made him stronger.-------------Then he's a glutton for punishment.

[TexianLife]

12:32 PM on 03/01/2012

McCain doesn't like Mitt. He endorsed Mitt because he's still bitter about his loss in 2008.

[Countess]

12:27 PM on 03/01/2012

Romney knows full well that because McCain didn't go far enough to the right during his primary campaign in 2008 he was forced to choose a right wing extremist as his running mate just to get the full republican vote.

[SueMVetforObama2]

12:06 PM on 03/01/2012

Mitt is a /ying, draft-dodging, tax-evader who states his sons are serving this country by helping his campaign.

[Non Sibi]

09:03 PM on 03/01/2012

That pretty much covers it. Succinct. I like that.
Should have fanned you long ago. Fixed that!

[Piyush]

12:01 PM on 03/01/2012

Attacks against you only help if you handle them well. You know the way Obama handles them. So far Romney has not only handled attacks poorly but he's also has numerous unforced errors as the nomination drags on and on.

[Non Sibi]

09:04 PM on 03/01/2012

"Unforced errors" Perfect.

[demisfine]

11:55 AM on 03/01/2012

Two quick points -
1 No way Santorum needed Michael Moore via the Obama WH to tell him to get the unions to insert themselves into the republican primary.
2 Mud wrestling would be a step up from the debates.

[Michigan Joe]

11:53 AM on 03/01/2012

Did Ann approve this comment?

[tangelan]

10:03 AM on 03/01/2012

Stop whining, Mitt. You're totally oblivious to the fact that you're disliked by both parties.

[Jon David]

09:51 AM on 03/01/2012

Yep those herpes outbrakes will toughen you up mitt. They have medication for those attacks.

[no exit]

09:47 AM on 03/01/2012

Doesn't a person have to start from strong before they can be stronger?

[Lucile S]

09:58 AM on 03/01/2012

Yes he just congratulates himself, once again.

[prudencehall]

09:33 AM on 03/01/2012

Nothing could make Mitt Romney "stronger". He's a jellyfish.

[Lucile S]

09:25 AM on 03/01/2012

McCain is right, what this mud wrestling has raised about Romney since the beginning? That he's influenceable -- by all other candidates --, he doesn't assume what he did as a Gov., he's ready for anything to win -- launch some rotten ads in each State -- and ultimately crush everyone with his money, $64 million. What wonderful things to his credit.

How could he get behind someone, a nominee, he criticized by saying all day long that he's a loon?