Friday, August 03, 2007
Mitt Takes the Gloves Off
Posted by Dean Barnett | 9:58 PM
Yesterday, Mitt Romney went into Iowa radio host Jan Mickelson’s studio for a conversation about politics. At least it should have been about politics. Instead, Mickelson decided he wanted to grill Romney on the Mormon church and Mormon theology. (I also thought Mickelson’s comments on politics, namely that the President should overrule the Supreme Court when in the President’s opinion the Court oversteps its bounds, were a tad on the screwy side as well.)
Mickelson’s station, WHO, had a video recorder on the governor that was recording his off-air comments, something that Romney was unaware of. On the air, Mickelson stated that according to Mormon theology, Romney should have been excommunicated from the Mormon Church because he was once pro-choice. Off the air, Romney tried to gently tell Mickelson that he didn’t know what he was talking about. Although I’ve never heard even a snippet of Mickelson’s show before today, I bet Mickelson holding forth on something he knows nothing about happens on a not infrequent basis. The off air exchange (that once again Romney didn’t know was being taped) was at times heated. WHO today posted the footage on its website.
Dirty pool aside, I don’t think Romney has looked better at any time during the campaign. Firm, decisive, authoritative – that’s the guy I know. While it’s a shame that some members of the media will decide that Romney should have to defend his faith and insist that he campaign for theologist-in-chief as well as commander-in-chief, it was wonderful to see Romney making such a strong case for his candidacy and the proper role of religion in the campaign.
The footage above starts a bit slow, but give it time. I promise you it heats up.
mrclark writes: Friday, August, 03, 2007 10:36 PM
Scummy of Mickelson to post this….
But I’d like to thank him for doing so.
Hey…I’ve personally never been “FOR” Mitt Romney like for instance Hugh has. I have no qualms about voting for a man who happens to be a Mormon either.
But viewing this video definitely put Mitt over the top (for me) as a real contender for the office. He shows grit and more than holds his own against Jan Mickelson (whoever that is). And it has nothing to do with Mitt saying he won’t try to impose his religion’s restrictions on alcohol on us either.
Hopefully this Mickelson guy disclosed to the Romney campaign before posting this. It would at least have been the honorable thing to do considering he told Mitt it was “off the record”, and then he puts it “on the record” by releasing it to the public via the web.
shockfam2 writes: Friday, August, 03, 2007 10:57 PM
Wow.
You know, I’ve supported Romney for a while now by default (he’s been the least “bad”). One of my biggest complaints about him was that he was plastic, that most of his lines were well rehearsed and focused grouped. The only thing I can say now is that he actually really impressed me here. He was firm but respectful and answered the questions directly. I don’t know what Mickelson’s intent was in releasing this video, but I do think it will only help the Governor.
DK Walser writes: Friday, August, 03, 2007 11:04 PM
Wow!
Look, I know Jan Mickelson was TRYING to do the right thing, but that was just way out of line. It was good to see Mitt stand up for himself, but it was so painful to listen to Jan grill Romney about Romney’s beliefs. Who’s the best arbiter of what Mitt Romney believes, Romney or someone else?
Sami writes: Friday, August, 03, 2007 11:06 PM
Love it!
Mitt supporter since Dec ‘04
Wearing a Mitt shirt today strangely enough.
Seeing Mitt handle himself under fire in an “off the record” environment was fantastic.
Cool, poised, firm, fair, can’t give him enough props. I hope a lot of people see this video. It’ll help with independents and the farther right at the same time.
Daniel (LA) writes: Friday, August, 03, 2007 11:43 PM
Wow!
Mitt was impressive! Standing firm in his personal beliefs while understanding the difference between personal belief and governance.
Mickelson came off as arogant and unwilling to reason. Even as Mitt would offer a rebuttal, Mickelson seemed incapable acknowledging his errors.
Joe writes: Saturday, August, 04, 2007 12:10 AM
Mitt impressed me with this
Mitt held his own and defended his position well. Frankly I thought Mitt was a bit of a phony, but he raised his stature with me a lot with his arguments. They were civil and forceful.
Maybe I have been too hard on the Governor.
one hot minute writes: Saturday, August, 04, 2007 12:48 AM
Mitt looked great
Yeah, there are some folks out there who still haven’t figured out we’re electing a Commander-in-Thief, not a Theologian-in-Chief.
If these folks think they have a theological divide with LDS, wait until they find out what living under the Islamic caliphate is all about !
Mitt looked great in handling the situation, and
Brightwinger makes a good point about how it appears Mickleson was hoping to catch Romney in a relaxed “gotcha !” moment where, say, the Governor was picking a piece of broccoli out of his teeth.
For heaven’s sake, at least the guy who does the “Girls Gone Wild” videos asks his subjects to sign a document affirming they know they were being videotaped.
And you know if either the Sam Brownback or Ron Paul campaign got ahold of a hypothetical video of Romney picking broccoli out of his teeth, it might enable them each to sustain their 9th and 10th place “grassroots” campaigns for another…two weeks !
Townhall’s own anti-Romney blogger Matt Lewis would have been able to mine that gold for at least a week’s worth of “If Mitt has trouble with broccoli, just HOW can we trust him to defeat Al Qaeda ?!” posts.
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