President Barack Obama will come out aggressively in his next debate with Mitt Romney on Tuesday, Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon told Newsmax.TV.
Walden, who serves as the Deputy Majority Whip and chairman of the House Republican Leadership, said Obama will be “attacking anybody he can because he really can’t defend the policies of his own administration that has left the economy in a bit of a train wreck and driven up deficits to record levels, $16 trillion in debt.”
He added: “When your policies have been that bad of a failure, the tendency is to strike out and attack others who weren’t part of your policies and try and divert attention away from your own shortcomings.”
Watch our exclusive interview. Story continues below.
Turning to the upcoming House elections, Walden said Democrats are facing strong competition in areas traditionally seen as safe for them, including seats in Massachusetts, California and Connecticut, due to the quality of the GOP candidates.
“Richard Tisei against [Rep. John] Tierney up in Massachusetts — this is a seat that we can win with a quality candidate on our side in Richard Tisei,” he said.
“He’s ahead in Massachusetts and these are states Republicans are becoming competitive in…. [Andrew] Roraback in Connecticut is on the march and you’re seeing good races out here in California with Ricky Gill, for example, against [Jerry] McNerney. He’s up in the polls and is just a dynamite young man of Indian descent. His parents are both OB/GYNs. He is just lighting the place on fire.
"So, from one end of the country to the other, we are seeing quality candidates that are going to become members of Congress.”
Walden said it’s still too early to say how House races will turn out but the GOP is starting to get more help from key groups.
“We have the potential to pick up seats, maybe as many as five,” he said.
“But, look, we’re a long way from knowing the outcome. This election’s a long way from over. We’re delighted that some of these groups are coming in now and helping out in their own ways, in independent ways."
He said the help is needed because of the money unions are putting in to back Democrats.
He continued, “In Pennsylvania, they were spending something like $11 or $12 an hour to hire people to go door-to-door to fill in for a lack of grassroots support. I bet that all adds up. So we’ve been outgunned, outspent for a long time here. So it’s nice to see some help arrive.”
If Romney wins and the GOP keeps control of the House, Walden said Romney’s skills as a leader will help bring both sides together to get things done.
“If we control more than one third of the process, we’ll be more empowered to get America on the right track,” he said. “But it really takes all three to get the job done or bipartisan cooperation from the Senate which we would welcome any time to resolve these problems.
"Speaker Boehner has worked really hard trying to find solutions with President Obama and they thought they had an agreement and then President Obama walked away from it.”
He concluded, “We really need leadership out of the White House and Gov. Romney proved as governor of Massachusetts, with 87 percent Democrat legislature, that he could govern and he did. So it really gets down to the occupant of the White House leading the country in a positive way, willing to work across the line, not dividing the country and you can get things done.
"Gov. Romney proved that in Massachusetts and he’ll prove it as president of the United States in Washington.”
© 2013 Newsmax. All rights reserved.