Romney says he and Gingrich chose “very different paths”

GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney met with The Des Moines Register’s editorial page editors this afternoon. I’ll post a link to the full video on the paper’s website when I find it, but here’s the AUDIO of the direct question of Romney about rival Newt Gingrich. Romney lists Gingrich ideas like colonizing the moon in his answer, which goes on for six minutes.   Here are the highlights included in my Radio Iowa story:

…this afternoon during a meeting with The Des Moines Register editorial board, Romney was asked to outline the differences between himself and Gingrich.

“I like my ideas better, all right?” Romney said, laughing. “And on some issues he and I disagree and I like my position better than his position.”

Romney suggested voters are looking for a steady leader, and Romney cited his executive work in the business world, his work in turning around the Salt Lake City Olympics and his work as governor of Massachusetts.

“I’ve had that leadership experience. I’ve also spent my life in the private sector,” Romney said this afternoon. “Speaker Gingrich has spent his life the last — I don’t know — 30 or 40 years in Washington. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just different.”

Romney told The Register’s editors Americans like presidents who exhibit “sobriety, wisdom and judgement” and who are “trusted” by others.

“I understand how the economy works at the level of job-creators,” Romney said. “I think that’s a distinctive factor that’s important.”

Romney got rather specific, citing some of the proposals Gingrich has made which he opposes, like adjusting child labor laws so poor students can work as janitors in their schools or colonizing the moon to mine for the rare materials up there.

“He even talked about a series of mirrors that we could put in space that would light our highways at night,” Romney said. “I’ve got some better ideas for our resources, so you know we have differences on issues and ideas.”

Romney suggested he and Gingrich followed “very different paths” in life. ”I respect the speaker as a very bright and capable guy,” Romney said. “But we’re very different people.”