Romney Stresses Differences With Two GOP Rivals

Romney was less willing to explore differences with former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, the current frontrunner in the race for the Republican nomination according to national polling results. But Romney said his message to Republicans is that they must appeal to economic, defense and social conservatives to win.

"I call it the three legs of the Republican stool," he said, repeating a message from Tuesday night's debate.

Giuliani, in that same debate, said Republicans should unite around two principles -- staying on offense against terrorism and promoting economic policies that cut taxes. Without criticizing Giuliani directly, Romney said that platform will not win the White House for Republicans in 2008.

During the interview, Romney also addressed health care. In Massachusetts, he signed into a law a major reform that seeks to provide health insurance to all residents of the state. He touted the reform during Tuesday's debate, but stopped short of saying he would advocate a similar plan for the nation if he were elected president.

"I like the idea of letting the states be the laboratories of democracy," he said during the PostTalk interview. "Let them each develop their own plan to deal with their uninsured and to deal with their underinsured as we did, and have the federal government provide the flexibility in the funding they that normally provide the states to encourage, if you will, that kind of experimentation."

Romney said he opposed the idea of a "one-size fits all" federal solution to a problem like health care. But as a candidate for Senate in 1994, Romney favored a national welfare reform bill at a time when many states were experimenting with their own reforms, and he has defended President Bush's No Child Left Behind law, which imposes requirements on school systems across the country.

He said he saw no contradiction. When asked if he would require states to provide health insurance for their citizens, he said, "I don't think you require states to do that at this stage."

Romney said he expected former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) to enter the race but would not speculate on what impact he might have on the contest.

Cillizza reports for washingtonpost.com.