Former governor and almost-certain presidential candidate Mitt Romney is launching a big media blitz today, and he kicked off the day with an eyebrow-raising statement: Hosni Mubarak has to move on.

ROMNEY: I think what the United States has to do is make it very clear to the people in Egypt that we stand with the voices of democracy and freedom. And we have to also communicate, as I think the administration has, that we would like to see a transition to a permanent democracy, not just a one time, one vote, and then the extremists take over, but instead a permanent democracy with the rule of law, with a support for the allies that have existed in the past. And that kind of transition would be best undertaken if President Mubarak were to step out of the way or lead the transition. But I don’t know that I would say to the president, ‘you should call for Mubarak’s resignation.’ That, I think, flies in the face of a long history of friendship between he and our country and our friends. But it’s very clear that he needs to move on, and the transition to the voices of democracy.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So it sounds like you have no quarrels with how the administration has handled this so far?
ROMNEY: Well, I think they got off to a rocky start. I think some of the statements early on were misguided. But I think they’ve corrected and they’ve said they want to see transition, I think that’s right. And I think that you’re going to find Mr. Wisner and others are going to say, ‘look, there ought to be a transition, that you Mr. Mubarak or someone else leads, to the voices of democracy in the street.’ We are a nation whose values and principles demand freedom, free enterprise, democracy. That’s the right course for Egypt.

Romney also said that he agrees with the recent decision declaring the individual mandate in Obamacare unconstitutional and emphasized that he prefered state-level solutions to health care, not a one-size fits all solution. When Stephanopoulos argued why the “same requirement in Massachusetts” wouldn’t be unconstitution

“States have rights that the federal government doesn’t have,” Romney said. “Under the Tenth Amendment, the powers of the federal government are specifically limited… States have certain rights that they can exercise… I’ll be the first to tell you as well, our plan isn’t working perfectly. There are a number of things I would do differently the second time around.”