PELLA, Iowa, July 3, 2007
Mitt Romney Makes His Case
Ex-Massachusetts Governor Talks With Hannah Storm About His Run For President
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Play CBS Video Video Candidate Romney Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has gone from being a long shot to a top candidate. Romney speaks with Hannah Storm about the controversy surrounding his faith and his stands on abortion and Iraq.
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Video Critical Week For '08 Hopefuls Mitt Romney is poised to beat Presdient Bush's record fundraising number of $37 million in the first quarter of his campaign. Joie Chen reports on the race to raise campaign cash.
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Video A Discussion With Mitt Romney In Full: Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney talks to Mike Wallace about the war in Iraq, his Mormon religion and his changing positions on abortion.
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Mitt Romney has the personal wealth to ensure he can contend in the expensive presidential campaign. (AP Photo)
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Blog Get To Know Hannah! The Early Show co-anchor is blogging about her favorite things and what's happening behind the scenes.
He is leading in key early state polls, led the GOP field for first-quarter fundraising and has the personal wealth to ensure he can match any opponent dollar for dollar.
Romney is campaigning for president the same way he has conducted his entire life: methodically and taking nothing for granted.
Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm spent the day with Romney and his wife, Ann, on the campaign trail in Pella, Iowa, for the first of a two-part series.
Romney has the look and the resume. He made hundreds of millions of dollars as a venture capitalist and used his business experience to rescue the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.
The following year Romney became governor of Massachusetts, no small feat for a Republican. He says he has the experience to be president and shares America's values.
Faith and family are Romney's cornerstones. He and his wife have five sons, all of whom, like their father, went on Mormon missions. Romney was a Mormon bishop and helped build a Mormon church. But the latest CBS News poll says 40 percent of Republican primary voters say that most people they know would not vote for a Mormon. Romney says he is not concerned because "they don't mean a hill of beans worth of difference."
In Iowa, one voter asked Romney what role the Bible would play in his decision-making process, considering that Mormons also have the Book of Mormon as one of their religion's guides.
"I don't know that there's any conflict at all between the values of great faiths," he said.
Romney bristles when asked about the particulars of his faith. When Storm asked Romney if Missouri is a holy land, because in Mormonism, Jesus is said to return to earth to meet Adam there, Romney ducked the question.
"You know, why don't you talk to my church about doctrines of my church and I'm going to leave to me the responsibility I have to talk about America and its future?" he said.
He said that faith is important to him, but he recognizes the role it needs to play when serving the American people.
"Hannah, I think people of faith who love their faith as we all do, recognize that when they take a political office, they put their hand on the Bible and they swear to abide by the Constitution and rule of law," he told Storm.
Other questions surround Romney, such as his shift to the right over key political issues like abortion. When he ran for the Senate in 1994, he said, "I believe abortion should be safe and legal in this country." When he ran for governor of Massachusetts in 2002, he said, "I will preserve and protect a woman's right to choose and am devoted and dedicated honoring my word in that regard."
But today he said that he believes Roe v. Wade should be reversed. Some critics charge that Romney changed his stance on abortion as an appeal to conservatives. It's a charge he denies.
"I was governor for four years and I changed my position the first time there was a bill that was brought to my desk that related to life," he said. "And I did change my view — and as I considered … well very simply as I considered this not just as a philosophical issue but as a life and death decision I was going to be making. I changed my mind and said look, we have to protect human life."
Now Romney is in danger of being given the dreaded label of "flip-flopper," the title that helped do in Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic nominee in 2004. Romney doesn't know if the label will stick to him; nor does he seem worried about it.
"If it does we'll apply it to everybody because I don't know anybody on either side of the aisle that's running for President that hasn't changed their mind on a wide range of issues over time," he said.
The biggest issue for any candidate is Iraq and Romney — ever the analytical businessman — wants more specifics on the war made public.
"We're going to hear from General Petraeus what progress is being made, and I would like to see us publicize to the American people what the metrics are that are going to be used to determine whether we are succeeding or not through this troop surge," he said.
Romney's message is resonating in Iowa, where he leads in the polls — thanks in part to the millions he is pouring into television ads there. He's still a distant fourth nationally among GOP candidates, but feels the push in early states will help boost his numbers later on.
"I think experience shows that national polls really aren't very important at this stage but doing well in early primary states and caucus states is what's critical," Romney said. "It is my expectation that the folks that do well in these early states will do well in the later states as well."
On Wednesday, Storm talks with Ann Romney about her 38-year marriage to Mitt, her battle with multiple sclerosis and how the Romneys keep it all together during the chaos of a presidential campaign.
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Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
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See all 31 CommentsWe should have freedom of religion in this country, don't know where someone got the idea that Mormons have the highest rate of MS or Down syndrome because they marry each other's relatives? Lots of Mormon marry people from different countries, we call each other brothers and sisters, but I don't think we are all that related except maybe because of ADAM and EVE.
We should have freedom of religion in this country, don't know where someone got the idea that Mormons have the highest rate of MS or Down syndrome because they marry each other's relatives? Lots of Mormon marry people from different countries, we call each other brothers and sisters, but I don't think we are all that related except maybe because of ADAM and EVE.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3827/is_200609/ai_n17190898
The sentience was to much considering what others got including Bill Clinton.
Do we really want another 8 years of Clinton and their cronies?
I never said anything about him being a flip-flopper so I'll thank you not to put words into my mouth. He doesn't strike me as sincere. He comes across as a tele-evangelist. Not one of the ridiculous screaming ones like Jimmy Swaggart, but more like the quiet con-artist ones like Pat Robertson before he went insane. His smile is just a little too put on, a little too phony, as is his "sincerity". He's trying too hard to sell himself to the point where it makes one wonder if he's hiding something. He reminds me of Ted Haggard, before the fall. Like I said, a little too slick and slimy. A phony.
Say why did he say that that Scientologist fiction bible was his favorite book?
Flip-flopped on stem cell research? No, that%u2019s another DNC talking point, and it%u2019s
simply not true. He has favored adult, cord blood and amniotic fluid stem cell research, but has consistently opposed embryonic stem cell research. When Harvard researchers stated that they would create human embryos in vitro for the purpose of research, then destroy them at 14 days, he realized that Roe v. Wade had cheapened the value of life. If a maturing of a view is a %u201Cflip-flop%u201D then everyone who has ever had a change of heart on any issue is, by your narrow definition, a flip-flopper.
As one who has known Mitt well for 42 years, let me straighten out some of the misconceptions. Better yet, why don%u2019t you take a serious look at the individual who is, by far, the best qualified candidate on either side? (www.mittromney.com; http://myclob.pbwiki.com/).
As to some of the objections raise:
%u2022 Lost big to Ted Kennedy in 1994: Who hasn%u2019t? Mitt and Kennedy were tied at 41% 4 weeks before the election. Then, the Kennedy campaign had to make something up that they knew wasn%u2019t true, but it worked. There was a 20 point swing a week after the false charges aired, and there wasn%u2019t time to turn it around. Check your history on this.
%u2022 Mitt%u2019s a quitter because he chose to serve only one term as Governor of Massachusetts? That%u2019s not quitting%u2014look at the record of accomplishments, including a $3 billion deficit turned into a $700 million surplus, without raising taxes.
%u2022 Flip-flopped on gay marriage? No, he never favored it, and that wasn%u2019t even an issue in 2002. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial, by a vote of 4-3, invented a constitutional right that John Adams never dreamed of when he wrote the Mass Constitution.
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You know, I don't like Romney, but I am with him on this. SHUT the HELL UP ABOUT A PERSON'S RELIGION. I am so sick of all of this. I don't remember anyone asking Reagan about the particulars of his church, or George Bush, SR, or Jimmy Carter, or anybody else. Just because someone goes to church has nothing to do with what kind of person they are, what kind of president they would make, and in fact, doesn't ever rule out the possiblility that they are a serial killer. Let us find out where candidates stand on issues that matter to most Americans and get our noses out of their pew.
George W. is a great example. His "faith" has led him down a path of believing that God is on his side, so that whatever he does is righteous and true and not subject to doubt or critical discourse. Instead we got arrogance and stubbornness.
This is the danger of fanaticism-- and Romney's new found religion is just as troubling as Dubya's "born again" dogma.
I choose Romney.
Posted by solutions9
Which Romney are you for--the one wwho believed one way , the one who was a terrible governor of Massachusetts or the one who changed all his political views to run for President as a Republican--which Romney do you support ??
I have no problem with him being a mormon--as longas he doesn't try to ram his reliious views down my throat (see the shrub), no problem--if he does--Big Problem.
The problem with him is he is a disingenuous jerk, who did a bad job as governor--so why kick him up to a larger jurisdiction??
BY: "We consider it of divine institution and not to be abolished until the curse pronounced on Ham shall have been removed from his descendants."
What would Jesus do?
Posted by ekucrew at 01:09 PM : Jul 03, 2007
He was with the Shrub!
When you make such crude comments remember these are people with children and grandparents who have suffered either directly or indirectly because of comments like yours.
Many mormons have served their country and have died for it. My mormon grandfather served in WWI, my mormon uncle served in WWII, my mormon father served during Korea. I have many mormon friends who served in Vietnam. I have many mormon friends whose sons and daughters have served or are now serving in Iraq.
Many serve both for their country and God by also going on a 2 year missions. If there was ever a religious group that lived Christian lives it is the mormons.
Around the world the mormons are consistantly among the first to arrive to help with food, water, shelter, clothes after natural disasters. They don't ask what religion the people are, they are just there to help and serve.
I don't know which political party you are assoicated with, but I'm sure your comments are an embarssament to any of them.
And Mr. Norwood, Your bigoted statement about mormonism is offensive. Would you not vote for him if he were a jew, hindu, muslim or buddhist???
Just because someone has different religious views than you do, doesn't make them a bad person. Look at the guy's life? Do any of the GOP or democratic contenders have anywhere near the experience and quality of character or family values that he does? Do you even know any mormons? You should do a bit more investigation. You might find out that they are actually good people. They were some of the first ones to provide assistance to the Katrina victims. You should start judging people by how they live their lives rather than what you read on some hateful web-site.
And Mr. Norwood, Your bigoted statement about mormonism is offensive. Would you not vote for him if he were a jew, hindu, muslim or buddhist???
Just because someone has different religious views than you do, doesn't make them a bad person. Look at the guy's life? Do any of the GOP or democratic contenders have anywhere near the experience and quality of character or family values that he does? Do you even know any mormons? You should do a bit more investigation. You might find out that they are actually good people. They were some of the first ones to provide assistance to the Katrina victims. You should start judging people by how they live their lives rather than what you read on some hateful web-site.
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