Gov. Nikki Haley, Rep. Tim Scott Slam Obama's Record

CHARLOTTE — South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said she isn't worried about the military under the control of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

In fact, the military wife said Romney's leadership is exactly what is needed to keep soldiers safe.

"What he has said many times on his stump speech is that he will never apologize for America, that he will always have the backs of our military," Haley told reporters on Tuesday afternoon at a press conference at the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

"I can tell you as a military wife, and as a military sister, there has never been a time when military families feel more insecure than we do right now. Because when you have a President who slashes the budget by thousands, knowing that we are sending our husbands, our brothers, our sisters and our mothers, all of those people out in harm's way to sacrifice for the freedoms that we have, for a President not to have their backs, what does that say about America?"

Haley went on to say that the President has continually let down military families by continually cutting spending.

"You have a group of military men and women who are literally walking out there thinking they have a dart board on their backs," Haley said. "Our family is watching it happen. My husband will go just like every other military family, but it would be a lot better if we had a President who had their backs and we knew they were going to come back safe."

But that's not the only reason, Haley, along with other members of the Republican National Committee came behind enemy lines to discuss what they consider to be failed promises of President Obama.

Haley, joined by former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu, Congressman Jason Chaffetz (UT-3), Congressman Tim Scott (SC-1) and former Deputy Administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration Jovita Carranza talked about how America is not better off.

Haley sounded off on women's issuess, striking out at the Democratic Party for what she called "60 days of total distraction." She women only care about more than contraceptives or pro-life or pro-choice issues.

"All women care about their budgets, they care about their jobs, they care about the economy, they care about whether they are going to be able to pay for their children to go to school," Haley said. "They care about whether their children are going to move back home or actually have a job when they get out."

Haley said this election is crucial.

"I do appreciate the DNC coming to Charlotte, because this is what it's all about. It's all about the debate," Haley said. "But I can tell you that we know we don't want and four more years of what we have."

Haley said if you compare now to four years ago, unemployment is higher. The debt is higher. The median income is lower.

"People don't have as much in their wallets," Haley said. "Gas prices almost doubled. If you ask your average household, we almost seem to have less in our wallets than when we started. We all know we are worried about the debt that our children are taking on. Something has to give."

State Rep. Bakari Sellers, D-Denmark, called Haley the state's "most divisive political figure."

"She's divisive when it comes to party politics, she's even divisive within her own party," Sellers said. "That does not breed an environment that is conducive to job creation or anything else."

Sellers said that South Carolina's unemployment rate is higher than all its neighbors. And that even during this economic downturn, it's higher than Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee.

"So what is she not doing?" he asked. "Nikki Haley's interests lie outside South Carolina, and I think that's been made clear."

Haley said she found it astonishing that when Obama was asked to grade himself, he would have given himself an incomplete.

"I have a 10-year-old and a 14-year-old, I know that if they came home with a report card with an incomplete, that means they failed, unless there's summer school," Haley said. "There is no summer school."

Haley said it's an admission he didn't get the job done and that America deserves better.

Scott said, "An `incomplete' is a way of avoiding a failing grade."

"As a freshman, I flunked out," Scott told reporters. "When you fail Spanish and English, they don't call you bilingual, by the way."

Scott urged a change in the resident of White House, saying that debt was higher and that hope was significantly lower.

Scott said, "We need Gov. Mitt Romney."

The group passed out a "swag bag" to members of the media that included "Obama's Second Term Agenda," which was comprised of blank pages, a box Legos and a package of Kleenex. Also included were the numbers of elected Democratic officials who didn't attend the convention and a breakdown of North Carolina by the numbers since Obama took office.