CHEROKEE &#8212 Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney hammered Saturday on radical jihadists and Iran’s nuclear potential while campaigning in the Little Sioux River Valley, where residents enjoy rodeos, symphonies and county fairs.

Romney said while visiting the campus of a northwest Iowa community college that the new videotaped message from al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden is nearly impossible for Americans to understand.

“Who can be so deluded as he is?” Romney said.

Romney told reporters afterward that bin Laden’s ideas on Americans accepting Islam “are not in line with rational thought.”

In the 26-minute video, bin Laden compares the Iraq war to Vietnam, criticizes the Democratic Party for failing to prompt a U.S. pullout from Iraq and encourages Americans to welcome Islam. He does not make any direct warning of an attack.

“The whole radical jihadist movement is extraordinarily misguided and evil and is a form of delusion,” Romney said.

Romney also played to social conservatives, condemning same-sex marriages.