Mitt Romney Announces He Will Not Run for President; Criticizes Obama on ISIS Policy

By Stoyan Zaimov, Christian Post Reporter Monday, September 08, 2014

Former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney announced in an interview on Sunday that he will not be running for the 2016 presidential elections. He also criticized President Barack Obama's foreign policy and strategy on terror group ISIS.

"I'm not running and not planning on running," Romney categorically stated in a Fox News Sunday interview. The former Massachusetts governor, who lost the 2012 election against Obama in a 51.1 to 47.2 percent vote, insisted that he would have run a more effective administration at the White House than his Democratic rival.

The Republican accused Obama in the interview of being "out of touch with reality."

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"He's so out of touch with reality that he hasn't taken the necessary steps. … He's too busy on the golf course. I don't know if you can see the reality from the fairway, but he doesn't see reality," Romney said.

He added that Obama has known about ISIS for at least a year, but has taken no actions to effectively deal with the terrorists, who have captured several cities across Iraq and Syria and forced hundreds of thousands to flee.

"The president has a very different foreign policy than what the United States has had over the past 60 years," Romney added. "It's based on common humanity, and humanity is not common. … Bad people do bad things."

America has launched several airstrikes against ISIS targets in Iraq and has supplied arms to the Iraqi and Kurdish regional governments, but has ruled out sending ground troops into the region.

Following the release of a video showing ISIS militants beheading American journalist Steven Sotloff, Obama clarified that the U.S. does have a plan on how to address the terror group.

"Our objective is clear. That is to degrade and destroy (ISIS) so it's no longer a threat," Obama stated. "We can accomplish that. It's going to take some time, it's going to take some effort."

The president said in another speech: "We will protect our American citizens in Iraq, whether they're diplomats, civilians or military. If these terrorists threaten our facilities or our personnel, we will take action to protect our people."

Other Republicans have also accused Obama of not doing enough to tackle the threat from ISIS, or the Islamic State, as the group is also known.

"Mr. President, be honest with the threat we face," South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham said in an interview in August. "They are coming."

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein of the Democratic party added that it will take strong action to defeat the terror group.

"It takes an army to defeat an army, and I believe that we either confront [the Islamic State] now or we will be forced to deal with an even stronger enemy in the future," Feinstein said after the White House first confirmed it is launching airstrikes on ISIS. "Inaction is no longer an option."