MANSFIELD, Ohio - Fresh off a day of church and debate preparation, Mitt Romney returned to the trail Monday in Ohio, debuting new material against President Obama, who is enjoying a post-convention bump in the polls.
“‘Forward' is his campaign slogan,†Mr. Romney told a cheering crowd in a warehouse here. “I think ‘Forewarned' is a better term.â€
He added, “We're forewarned, and that's why we're not going to re-elect this man.â€
Turning to military spending, Mr. Romney said that the president had not yet specified what cuts he would make to the military.
“It seems we found one secret relating to national security that he's willing to keep, †he said. “There's another secret he's willing to keep related to national security, and that's the flexibility he's willing to give Russia after the election, and that's not flexibility he's going to have.â€
Mr. Romney also reprised a new portion of his stump speech that he had rolled out Saturday in Virginia, in which he uses lines from the Pledge of Allegiance to attack Mr. Obama and offer an alternate vision for the country.
“That pledge says that we are a nation under God,†Mr. Romney said. “When and if I become president of the United States, I will not take God out of my heart. I will not take God out of the public square, and I will not take it out of the platform of my party.â€
He was referring to a kerfuffle the Democrats had at their convention last week in Charlotte, N.C., when they had to scramble to put back a reference to “God†in their party platform.
Mr. Romney sought to cast the election as a choice between two diffe rent visions for the country, warning that the president's path would lead to military spending cuts, higher taxes and increased regulation on small businesses, as well as cuts to Medicare.
“That's the path he's put us on,†Mr. Romney said. “He wants to fundamentally transform America. I don't want America to become something new. I want America to become something better.â€
