May 13, 2007
Mitt Romney Wants To Re-Tool Washington
Mike Wallace Interviews The Contender For The GOP Presidential Nomination
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Romney On Abortion
Only On The Web: Mike Wallace talks to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney about his changing positions on abortion
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Romney On The Iraq War
Only On The Web: Mitt Romney, a Republican presidential candidate, discusses his views on the war in Iraq with Mike Wallace.
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Romney On Religion
Only On The Web: Former Mass. governor and current Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney talks to Mike Wallace about Mormonism and his close family ties.
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Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, has raised more money than any other Republican candidate. (CBS)
As correspondent Mike Wallace reports, Romney attracted national attention when, as governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2006, he balanced the budget every year, without raising taxes. He ran the state like the hugely successful CEO he's been for over 20 years.
And that came after he had rescued the 2002 Olympic winter games from financial disaster. And Romney says that now that he's turned around the Olympics and Massachusetts, he's ready to do the same for all of the U.S.A.
Over six feet tall, trim, fit, his hair graying slightly at the temples, he looks like a president. His movie star presence somehow reminds you of Cary Grant or Ronald Reagan.
"The rap on you of course is that you’re too smooth, too handsome, too polished. Are you really known as matinee Mitt?" Wallace asks.
"That’s the rap on you, Mike," Romney replies. "Too smooth, too polished."
But beneath the polish, there’s the steel of a tough minded and seasoned executive who is used to running things his way. Romney is reportedly worth over half a billion dollars that he earned as a venture capitalist who used cost-cutting, bottom line zeal to help grow companies like Domino's Pizza and Staples and re-tool ailing companies into profitable successes.
Now he wants to re-tool Washington.
"It is time to cut out the mountains of waste and inefficiency and duplication in the federal government. I’ve done that in business. I’ve done it in the Olympics. I’ve done it in Massachusetts and frankly I can’t wait to get my hands on Washington," Romney says.
"One thing people can be confident of is I have led and managed and I brought change to organizations. And if there’s ever been a time that Washington needed to be changed it’s now. It’s a mess in Washington," he adds.
To many Americans, that mess in Washington has been created by his fellow Republican, George W. Bush.
Romney carefully follows Ronald Reagan’s rule: never speak ill of a fellow Republican. But while he praises the president, he distances himself from Bush.
"Why do you think all of a sudden the Democrats are in charge?" Wallace asks.
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Mitt Romney on:Abortion |
"Well, because of Iraq," Romney says.
"You mean the president screwed up in Iraq?" Wallace asks.
"I think the administration made a number of errors," Romney says.
"Like for instance?" Wallace asks.
"Well, I don’t think we were adequately prepared for what occurred. I don’t think we had done enough planning, I don’t think we’d considered the various downsides and risks," Romney says.
"We, is George W. Bush," Wallace remarks.
"Well, he’s the person where the buck stops," Romney says. "But it’s the whole administration."
"They screwed up," Wallace remarks.
"Well, they made mistakes. I’m not gonna use the same phrase you would. And we’re paying for those mistakes," Romney says.
And, he says, there were misjudgments. "I think there was a strong, honest belief among people in our administration that we would be welcomed with open arms. And that Iraq would become a model of democracy for all of the Middle East. And you know what? We were wrong," Romney says.
But Bush is right, Romney says, about the current U.S. troop surge in Iraq, at least for now.
"I think we’re gonna know in a matter of months if it’s working or it’s not working," he says.
Among the things he wants to do as president is increase U.S. troop strength overall by at least 100,000 and modernize military equipment. He wants to secure the Mexican border and decrease U.S. dependence on foreign oil. He’s against gay marriage and civil unions and says that he'll hold the line on taxes.
Produced By Ruth Streeter
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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See all 262 CommentsDidn't he say somewhere that Americans have to sacrifice more? Or was that McCain? Either way, I thought offshoring was making Americans sacrifice... or the obscenely high cost of education. Never mind gas when nobody wants to put in light rail despite all those commercials pertaining to light rail and/or "clean coal", of which America has more of it than the middle east has oil... That isn't sacrifice enough, especially in a land whose corporate and political leaders don't seem to know what to do with all these problems?
Or is it an embarrassment to be intelligent in America; where dumb is played up and the geeks and nerds knocked down?
Even John McCain is a superior candidate, but he's proven himself fairly dim and clearly out of touch as well. He thinks Americans wouldn't pick lettuce for even $50/hr. Whatever. He's wasting his time. 2 down, 8 to go. Make that 9, if the blab about Republicans liking Hillary is even remotely real (they loathed her in the early '90s with her liberal plans, so why like her now?)
Yeah...like THAT will ever happen!
Yeah...like THAT will ever happen!
Yeah...like THAT will ever happen!
Wallace is a great suppurating southern end of a porcine alimentary canal. As are all of you media types, who think you populate a moral plane well above the rest of us, and from which you peer down on us all from a very great height. God-like, you believe justified of every intrusion, every implied insult, every mental excrescence.
You "main stream media" people are a disgrace to journalism, to the nation, and to your fathers, if you know who they are.
Wallace is a great suppurating southern end of a porcine alimentary canal. As are all of you media types, who think you populate a moral plane well above the rest of us, and from which you peer down on us all from a very great height. God-like, you believe justified of every intrusion, every implied insult, every mental excrescence.
You "main stream media" people are a disgrace to journalism, to the nation, and to your fathers, if you know who they are.
This is the reason I don't even watch *any* TV news shows anymore.
It would be nice if reporters like Mike Wallace would focus on the "issues" that each candidate has.
Mit isn't running for "Pastor-in-Chief" he's running for "Commander-in-Chief".
Mit has tremdous cross-functional experience would make a great President for all Americans, he is very moderate.
If Americans liked Ronald Reagan they are going to LOVE Mit Romney..........
It would be nice if reporters like Mike Wallace would focus on the "issues" that each candidate has.
Mit isn't running for "Pastor-in-Chief" he's running for "Commander-in-Chief".
Mit has tremdous cross-functional experience would make a great President for all Americans, he is very moderate.
If Americans liked Ronald Reagan they are going to LOVE Mit Romney..........
ENERGY policy: Big Oil
FOREIGN policy: AIPAC
HEALTHCARE: Pharma
FISCAL policy: Wall St booms while the middle class starves
NATIONAL DEFENSE: perpetual war that will only profit the corporate war machine at the expense of the troops, their families and the hundreds of thousands of innocents that get slaughtered around the world because of our policies.
EPA: Exxon-Mobil Protection Agency
EDUCATION: why ?, best to keep the masses stupid and gullible ..
RELIGION: best to educate with myth, more pliable than the truth -
... the middle class is insignificant to the Republican Party - they seek a ruling elite and a vast working poor which consolidates wealth and power for their corporate masters, leaving very little for "we the people". America is quickly becoming a third world country riddled with debt under Republican greedership. Is this the way of life we want to protect ? Is this the America we grew up with ? Time to wake up sheeple !
After 8 years of "git'er done" George, I would be surprised if, whoever the Republican candidate is, they don't loose by a landslide to the Democrats. I think America has finally realised that "Praise the Lord" and pass as many laws as you possibly can to benefit the guy with $10,000,000 in the bank isn't really looking out for the common good of all Americans.
Also, if these clowns are the "values" candidate, we have a right to determine if they are hypocrites or not BEFORE an election.
Mike, keep asking those questions that are meant to reveal the real candidate!
Bush is the Commander and Chief.
Anyone who questions him is a traitor.
Anyone who critisizes him is a traitor.
His record of success in Iraq speaks for itself.
Never again, not ever, not one more time, will I vote for another Republican for any office, state or federal.
I am not impressed with any of the current field of 2008 wannabes regardless of party.
I am looking for the dark horse.
I believe I am not alone...
Posted by lackofperception5
I didn't and I wouldn't!!! Reagan was a king size a**hole!
Posted by perception5 at 08:58 AM : May 11, 2007
This posted by the party that spent MILLIONS trying to find out that Clinton got a BJ! Your a freakin hypocrite.
While Mike Wallace did a pretty good job of interviewing LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley - he should have stayed "retired" for this one.
Posted by JohnKuhn2
Then you must know that your fearless majority leader President Harry Reid is a Moron, oops a Mormom, too.
He lied about everything he possibly could to become governor of Massachusetts. Then he started fundraising for president by bashing his own state. Opportunistic, fake, liar. (Is "Mitt" a nickname for "George?")
if it is ok for fascist nazi islamic muslims to kill all non muslims everywhere.... is it ok for the non muslims to kill all fascist nazi islamic muslims???
Wouldn't killing 5.1 BILLION people (the number of non muslims in the world) be the very definition of barbarism???
Or is it fascist nazi islam%u2019s way of solving global warming???
Switching Sides: Inside The Enemy Camp
But then in 2000, well before his arrest, something happened which would make Abas question everything he believed in: a fatwa, a religious edict, was issued by Osama bin Laden.
"It should be understood that killing Americans and Jews anywhere found are the highest act of worship and the highest form of good deeds in the eyes of Allah," Simon quotes bin Laden.
Abas and his fellow commanders were ordered to read the fatwa to their men and make sure they carried it out. The others obeyed, but Abas refused. It was his moment of truth. He firmly believed that jihad was to be fought only on the battlefield in defense of Islam; he had always been taught that the killing of civilians had nothing to do with holy war and that it was forbidden.
The fatwa justified killing non-Muslim civilians everywhere.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/04/60minutes/main2761108.shtml?source=RSSattr=60Minutes_2761108
OK, so how many of the members of the "Mormon" church have you met, and how many do you know on a personal basis? There's a lot of diversity in such a large organization. Your outrageous comments clearly identify you as a bigot and Mormon-phobe - and one who knows nothing about the Mormon Church or its people.
, Shouldn't you be attacking Mormans ??? -- You're Christians murdered them ran them out of Missouri & Illinois to Utah & orginized death squads to murder them & run them out of Utah.
--- DON'T YOU CALL THEM THE ANTI-CHRIST ?? ---
Hezbollah builds a Western base
From inside South America%u2019s Tri-border area, Iran-linked militia targets U.S.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17874369/
Sources: Terrorists find haven in South America
Deep in the heart of South America, the region where Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay meet has some of the most porous borders -- and busiest black markets -- in the world.
http://archives.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/americas/11/07/inv.terror.south/
Part 1: Hezbollah south of the border
CIUDAD DEL ESTE, at the triple border of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay - This is the way savage globalization ends - at least 20,000 shops, stalls, tin shacks and mini-malls crammed into 15 blocks selling everything under the (tropical) sun. There's Little Asia - thousands of Taiwanese, mainland Chinese and Koreans. But above all there are some 20,000 Arabs of Syrian and mostly Lebanese descent (another 12,000 live in the Brazilian resort of Foz do Iguacu, across the Friendship Bridge).
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HH03Aa01.html
Hezbollah: A Case Study of Global Reach
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC07.php?CID=132
Maybe he would say "don't judge me on what religion I am ...........but instead judge me on the content of my character"
If America is ever going to evolve into the greatest country in the history of our planet we need to get away from judging people on:
1. color of their skin
2. what religion they are .....or not
3. what Party they belong to.
When electing our political leaders shouldn't it "really" be on the "issues"???
What do you think?
Maybe he would say "don't judge me on what religion I am ...........but instead judge me on the content of my character"
If America is ever going to evolve into the greatest country in the history of our planet we need to get away from judging people on:
1. color of their skin
2. what religion they are .....or not
3. what Party they belong to.
When electing our political leaders shouldn't it "really" be on the "issues"???
Is there anything wrong with this approach?
Really ?
I can think of a lot of things worse than polygamy.
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