Candidates say the darndest things

Quote machine Herman Cain and the usually buttoned-down Mitt Romney both came locked and loaded to separate encounters with the press on Tuesday.

Romney, in an interview with Sean Hannity, defended his bona fides as a conservative, taking a slap at some of his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination in the process. "I may not be as incendiary or outlandish in rhetoric as some have been in the race," the former Massachusetts governor said, "but I think, in the final analysis, people want someone who is stable, solid."

The Cain sound bite du jour came during a brief Q&A with reporters outside a Chicago steak house. Insisting that he really is running a legitimate campaign and not just trying to pump up sales of his recently published memoir, Cain said voters will take him seriously because "If I make a mistake, I'm willing to admit that I made a mistake."

To a reporter who wondered if that is presidential behavior, Cain snapped: "Yes it is, because the last perfect person was hung on a cross 2,000 years ago. Next question!"