On Romney’s iPad: a book predicting a second Cold War with Russia

CRAIG, Colo.—Perhaps nothing generates more speculation about a candidate's thinking than what he or she is reading on the campaign trail.

As reporters filed past Mitt Romney on his campaign plane upon landing in Colorado Monday, the candidate was spied reading "The Next 100 Years" by intelligence analyst George Friedman on his iPad.

Per Wikipedia, the 2009 book offers some provocative predictions, including the possibility of a new Cold War with Russia and tensions with Mexico amid the rising influence of Mexican immigrants in the southwestern United States.

Asked on the tarmac about the book, Romney simply described the book as "interesting."

But his reading choice is likely to set off new speculation about Romney's feelings on foreign policy and immigration, two issues he has gingerly navigated on the campaign trail.

At an event in San Diego on Monday, Romney offered a dire prediction of the world under a second Obama term—warning that a smaller military would put the nation at risk.

"I wish I could tell you that the world is a safe place today. It's not. Iran is rushing to become a nuclear nation ... Pakistan is home to some 100 nuclear weapons. China's on the road to becoming a nuclear, excuse me, a military superpower. Russia is rebuilding their military and is now led by a man who believes that the Soviet Union was a great, as opposed to evil, empire," Romney said. "Chavez is campaigning for power throughout Latin America. Mexico is under siege from the cartels, and in the Middle East, the Arab Spring has become an Arab Winter. The world is not safe."

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