Romney: Obama acceptance speech ‘extraordinarily disappointing’ (VIDEO)

Firing back after days of attacks by Democrats, Mitt Romney called President Barack Obama's acceptance speech Thursday night at the Democratic National Convention "extraordinarily disappointing."

"I was surprised by his address because I expected him to confront the major challenge of the last four years: the economy," The Hill quoted Romney as saying. "But he did not. Instead it was a whole series of new promises he'll also be unable to keep." 

More from GlobalPost: Obama: Hope and change with a dash of bitters

The GOP presidential candidate made the remarks Friday during a campaign rally in Iowa.

It was his first campaign appearance after spending five days in Vermont prepping for the upcoming presidential debates.

In an interview with Fox News earlier Friday, Romney said he read Obama's speech but did not watch it.

More from GlobalPost: Obama still deadlocked with Romney night of DNC speech

The former Massachusetts governor said there was nothing in it that gave him confidence that the "president knows what he's doing" on jobs and economy, and pounded Obama over a gloomy August jobs report.

Romney did defend not mentioning the war in Afghanistan during his speech at the Republican National Convention last week, telling CNN he spoke at the American Legion convention the day before he took the RNC floor.

"I took time out from our convention to go to the American legion and speak to our veterans and speak about our commitment in Afghanistan and elsewhere," Romney said. "The president apparently didn't have time to go to the American legion as I did."