Mitt Romney Backs Obama's Handling of Egypt Crisis

Mitt Romney says President Obama should "press the pause button" on health care in the face of court opinions saying the law is unconstitutional, but Obama's potential 2012 rival does not quarrel with his handling of the crisis in Egypt.

Romney said Tuesday he wouldn't advise the White House to urge Hosni Mubarak to step down at this point.

"I think they got off to a rocky start. I think some of the [White House] statements early on were misguided," he told George Stephanopoulos on ABC's "Good Morning America." "But I think they corrected and they said they want to see transition. . . . I don't know that I would say to the president, 'You should call for Mubarak's resignation.' "

Romney, a 2008 presidential candidate who insists he has not decided whether to run next year, acknowledged that the U.S. has "a long history of friendship" with Mubarak, but "it is very clear that [Mubarak] needs to move on and transition to the voice of democracy." Obama is choosing his words carefully as the crisis unfolds in Egypt. The administration has called for an orderly transition, but has not insisted the Mubarak step down immediately.

On health care, although Romney is critical of the new federal law -- "a very bad piece of legislation" -- he didn't apologize for a similar statute in Massachusetts, enacted while he was governor. "I'm indicating that we went in one direction and there are other possible directions," he said in the interview. "I'd like to see states pursue their own ideas -- see which ideas work best."

While Romney has yet to reveal his intentions regarding a 2012 campaign, he ended the 2010 calendar year with a robust $1.4 million in cash after raising $6.3 million in donor money last year from his federal and state-based political action committees, The Hill newspaper reported. That topped the prospective GOP field; former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was second with $3.5 million raised in 2010 and $1.3 million on hand.

Romney is on tour promoting the paperback version of his book "No Apology."

Watch the Romney interview.






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