MUSCATINE, Iowa — Republican presidential contenders Mitt Romney and Rick Perry on Wednesday assailed Ron Paul for saying the U.S. has no business bombing Iran to keep it from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
“One of the people running for president thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon,” Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, said in this eastern Iowa city in response to a question from the audience. “I don’t.”
It was the first time that Romney has challenged Paul directly since the Texas congressman jumped in polls. Neither he nor Perry, the Texas governor, named Paul, but the target was clear.
“You don’t have to vote for a candidate who will allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. Because America will be next,” Perry said in Urbandale, reiterating a line of argument from a day earlier.
“I’m here to say: You have a choice,” Perry added.
As if in rebuttal, Paul’s campaign launched a new television commercial describing him as “principled, incorruptible, guided by faith and principle” and the man to restore the economy. “Politicians who supported bailouts and mandates, serial hypocrites and flip floppers can’t clean up the mess,” it says as photos of Newt Gingrich and Romney appear on screen.
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