Romney camp slams McCain over his positive comments of Democratic Governor

Mitt Romney's campaign is criticizing John McCain for his positive comments about New Hampshire Governor John Lynch, a Democrat, while he was campaigning in Lynch's hometown.

"Only John McCain would criticize a fellow Republican one day and then campaign with a Democrat the next," said Romney's New Hampshire Director Jim Merrill.

On Saturday McCain addressed the New Hampshire Republican Party's central committee in Manchester where he called into question Romney's assertion that he comes from the "Republican wing of the Republican Party."

“When he ran against Ted Kennedy, he said he didn’t want to return to the days of Reagan-Bush. I always thought Ronald Reagan was a real Republican," McCain told the group, which included Romney supporters.

On Sunday. McCain held a town hall meeting in Hopkinton, Lynch's hometown. The event was broadcast live on CSPAN. At the beginning of his remarks McCain said he was a "great admirer" of Lynch. (Lynch has a reputation for being bi-partisan and has enjoyed an approval rating of over 70 percent for about two years.)

Lynch later showed up to the town hall simply to welcome him to town and to say he has "enormous respect and admiration" for McCain.

Merrill said that New Hampshire Republicans may not share McCain's view though a poll last week showed that over 60 percent of Republicans did have a positive view of Lynch.

"New Hampshire Republicans know all too well what Governor Lynch's vision for change has meant for New Hampshire. We need the conservative change in Washington that can only come from Governor Romney," Merrill said.

You can watch it on YouTube below.

Update: McCain's New Hampshire co-chair Peter Spaulding responds

"John McCain learned from his political hero Ronald Reagan to extend his hand in friendship to members of the other political party. Obviously Mitt Romney never learned that lesson because he admitted he was never part of the Reagan Revolution," Spaulding said.