Smug Romney Condescending To The Troops In Fox Interview [VIDEO]

Mitt Romney continued his attack-first-ask-questions-later approach to the election by getting smarmy during an interview with Fox News on Friday. After the Democrats hammered him for leaving the war in Afghanistan out of his Aug. 30 acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, Romney was visibly uncomfortable before dropping the sound bite bomb that's still reverberating around the Internet.

"Do you regret opening up this line of attack, now a recurring attack, by leaving out that issue in the speech?" Fox's Bret Baier asked.

"I only regret you repeating it day to day," Romney responded before forcing himself to laugh. "When you give a speech you don't go through a laundry list, you talk about things that you think are important. I described in my speech my commitment to a strong military, unlike the president's decision to cut our military. I didn't use the word 'troops,' I used the word 'military.' I think they refer to the same thing."

Eesh, that could've certainly gone better. Referring to the troops as a "laundry list" item is hardly a step in the right direction for a presidential candidate who has been dogged by his difficulty connecting emotionally. President Barack Obama also said he wants to keep a strong military in his accpetance speech.

Or, as the Daily Kos put it so eloquently, "You thank the f***ing troops."

"He [Romney] claims that throwing more money at the Pentagon than the Pentagon has actually asked for shows his commitment to the troops," Kos said. "For him, money is always the answer because it's the only thing that matters."

For the sake of clarity, the definitions in Merriam-Webster Dictionary of military and troops are not the same thing.

Military:

1 a : of or relating to soldiers, arms, or war b : of or relating to armed forces; especially : of or relating to ground or sometimes ground and air forces as opposed to naval forces

2 a : performed or made by armed forces b : supported by armed force

Troops:

1 a : a group of soldiers

b: a cavalry unit corresponding to an infantry company

c plural : armed forces, soldiers

2 a: collection of people or things

3 a: flock of mammals or birds

4 a: the basic organizational unit of Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts under an adult leader

Despite the war's unpopularity, Romney also criticized the president for pledging to remove troops from Afghanistan that he sent there during the surge of 2010. The Republican followed Friday's interview by pledging Saturday to fight any legislation that would remove "God" from coinage, a plan no one proposed, according to the Los Angeles Times.