Romney didn't talk about troops because he didn't think they were important

The Democrats savaged Mitt Romney last night at the Democratic Convention for not even mentioning the troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, let alone thanking them for their service, during his speech at the Republican Convention last week.

Today, Romney was asked about that criticism, and he explained that he didn't talk about America's service members in harm's way because he only wanted to talk about "important things."

Via ThinkProgress:

BAIER: To hear several speakers in Charlotte … they were essentially saying that you don’t care about the U.S. military because you didn’t mention U.S. troops and the war in Afghanistan in your nomination acceptance speech. … Do you regret opening up this line of attack, now a recurring attack, by leaving out that issue in the speech.

ROMNEY: I only regret you’re repeating it day in and day out. When you give a speech you don’t go through a laundry list, you talk about the things that you think are important and I described in my speech, my commitment to a strong military unlike the president’s decision to cut our military. And I didn’t use the word troops, I used the word military. I think they refer to the same thing.

Well, that clears things up.

In fact, the criticism started with conservative Bill Kristol.