Once John McCain's bitter rival, Mitt Romney spoke here Thursday as one of McCain's top backers.

Campaigning on behalf of McCain at the Lancaster County Republican Committee's spring banquet, Romney extolled the Arizona senator as the presidential candidate best able to deal with thorny issues such as Iraq, health care and the stumbling economy.

"America is going to do the right thing. We're going to elect Senator McCain. We're going to remain strong and we will remain what we have always been: the hope of the earth," he told nearly 500 dinner guests at Willow Valley Resort and Conference Center.

Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, dropped out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination on Feb. 7, endorsing McCain a week later. He remains a possible vice presidential pick for McCain, although he has recently sidestepped questions about getting the No. 2 spot.

During his 25-minute speech here, Romney praised McCain while criticizing and belittling the two Democratic presidential hopefuls, Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

"Isn't it fun watching Hillary Clinton trying to convince us that Barack Obama shouldn't be elected; watching Barack Obama try and convince us that Hillary Clinton shouldn't be elected? You see, I agree with both of them," he said, eliciting chuckles and applause from an audience packed with local GOP office-holders.

Romney directed most of his attacks against Obama; when he mentioned Clinton, he paired her with Obama.

Apart from a few playful jabs at the Democrats and a self-deprecating remark about the crowd "getting the guy who lost," Romney's speech was a serious recitation of challenges the country faces.

He argued that McCain was uniquely capable of addressing those challenges, especially the one from "radical, violent jihad."

"This is a movement in the world, it is not just a few people in the mountains of Afghanistan that want to set off a bomb here and there — as terrible as that alone would be. This is a group that is intent on causing the collapse of the United States of America: militarily, economically, and politically," Romney said.

Calling Iraq the front line of the conflict epitomized by the threat from al-Qaida, Romney said Obama is misreading that country's importance and would pull troops out of there too soon.

"(McCain) will do everything in his power to get our troops home, but not to get them home in a way that would lead to genocide or potentially to a regional conflagration that would cause us to have to go back again," Romney said.

Romney also said that both Obama and Clinton misunderstand how to protect the homeland.

"They seem to forget that the most important civil liberty we have is the right to be kept alive. ... Senator McCain, soon-to-be President McCain, is someone who will spend his time thinking about how he can protect the American people, rather than Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, who will spend their time worrying about what the ACLU thinks," Romney said.

Although it seems popular to criticize President Bush, Romney said, "let's not forget that he has kept us safe these last years."

On health care, Romney said McCain favors an approach that doesn't look to government to take over, contrasting that with proposals from both Obama and Clinton.

"I for one want to make sure that our health-care system is not run by the kind of bureaucrats who cleaned up Katrina. Let's elect John McCain," he said.

Since he withdrew from the presidential race, the 61-year-old former venture capitalist has pledged to raise $15 million for McCain. Last month, they jointly attended fundraisers in Utah and Colorado. Romney's appearance here Thursday was the first time he officially campaigned on his own for McCain.

Also at the dinner, county GOP Chairman Dave Dumeyer awarded the party's annual Servant Leadership Award to Linda Gordon, vice chairwoman of the county GOP and longtime committeewoman.

Andrew Heath, executive director of the county GOP, said he expected the dinner would bring in between $10,000 and $20,000 for the party. He added that in recent years the banquet has become less of a fundraiser and more of a party-building event.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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