Romney On Religion, The Competition

There's a sign of how seriously other Republican candidates are taking the surge by Mike Huckabee.

The man he knocked out of second place in the new / New York Times poll, Mitt Romney, will air an anti-Huckabee ad tomorrow, criticizing his record on illegal immigration: the first Republican on Republican attack ad.

CBS News anchor Katie Couric talked one-on-one with Romney about Huckabee - and also about his religion. Why didn't he explain the tenets of his Mormon faith in his speech last week?

"I can't imagine doing that in a speech as you're running for president because what it would do is say, 'look, you're running for president, you really need to describe your religion in some depth,' and that would really open the door to some kind of religious test where people would listen and say 'do I believe that?' 'do I disagree with it?' 'does it conform with my own view?'" Romney told Couric.

"It would say we're going to evaluate candidates based on their explanation of their religion and that's precisely what the Constitution and the founders said we should not do. No religious test should ever be required for qualification for office in these United States," Romney said.

Having said that, in the absence of a religious test, what's wrong with a little religious clarification?

"Well, and that's I think what I did," Romney said. "I pointed out and provided the answers to the questions I think are appropriate. 'Will you be there to take direction from the leaders of your church?' And I said 'no.' 'Will you be there primarily or in any way to try and represent your church or put its interests ahead of the people?' And the answer is 'absolutely not.'"

In Iowa, Huckabee has TV ads that describe him in quite a prominent way as a Christian leader. Couric asked Romney: "Do you think he's trying to draw a distinction between the two of you?"

"People run their own campaigns as the want to. I do think it's important we don't reject someone for political office based on their faith. But also that we don't select someone or elect someone merely because of their faith. And I think it's unusual to advertise your faith in your political campaign," Romney said.

What does he think of the Huckabee surge in Iowa and nationwide?

"I've watched the surge with interest and there have been several before it. We began with the McCain surge. Then we took a closer look and people moved on. And the reason is once someone surges, then comes the close inspection of their record," Romney said. "And I'm convinced as people take a good hard look at Mike Huckabee's record, they'll see this is a guy who is soft on criminals, soft on illegal aliens, but hard on taxpayers. And that's not what's going to lead the Republican party to take the White House."

Couric asked: "Do you think Rudy Giuliani has the judgment and character to be president of the United States?"

"I think Rudy Giuliani is a fine person who is a wonderful mayor in many respect, but if I were a citizen, I would be far more inclined to vote for me than to vote for him," Romney said, laughing.