Romney Rallies The GOP Base In COS

In front of a packed house at Springs Fabrication, presidential hopeful Mitt Romney spoke to GOP faithful.

“President Obama said if he couldn’t turn around this economy, he’d be a one-term president. We’re here to collect,” beamed Romney.

The crowd went wild.

Those in attendance, were not all Romney supporters, however. Some, still scouting for who to represent. One woman in attendance, proudly stated that she was for Rick Santorum, but was curious if she could throw her support behind who “will likely be the nominee.”

In a one-on-one interview, Romney told KRDO Newschannel 13’s Heather Skold that he is “concerned about all Americans,” in light of a recent statement in which he said “I’m not concerned about the poor” because they have a government-backed safety net in place. He later said if there were holes in the system, he would work to repair them.

“Things don’t always come out the way you want them. I want to make sure there are programs in place caring for the way they need to be cared for.”

On issues concerning the military, Romney criticized Def. Sec. Leon Panetta over what was a rough pullout timeline of late 2013 for combat troops in Afghanistan.

“I think it was a mistake to tell the Taliban, the Afghanistans and Pakistanis when we intend to cease combat operations. The idea of telling the enemy when we intend to stop fighting doesn’t make any sense at all.”

Romney said he instead favors a 2014 target, pending word from commanders.

Romney also wants four-percent of the U.S. Economy to be spent on military defense–a slight increase from current spending.

As part of that, he said he would purchase more F-35s, add 100,000 active duty personnel, and make sure there are sufficient funds to support military veterans.

“The right course for America is to recognize that we’re facing a more dangerous world, not a safer one. Our military should be so far superior to our enemy that no other nation should think of testing us.”