Mitt Romney takes some heat

The top three finishers in the Iowa straw poll of Republican presidential contenders --- Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Sam Brownback --- reaped immediate benefits from their showings: free air time on the Sunday morning chat shows. But if Romney, who won Saturday's contest in Ames, thought he was simply going to bask in his victory during an appearance on "Fox News Sunday," host Chris Wallace disabused him of that notion.

At the start of the interview, Romney was allowed to detail why his win should be seen as a big deal (a contention that remains a bit of a hard sell). Those preliminaries out of the way, Romney got a pretty good grilling on several fronts, including the familiar issue of his reversal on abortion rights, the less familiar topic of his less-than-stellar economic record as Massachusetts' governor and what Wallace aptly termed "the big dog controversy."

Wallace replayed the already widely circulated clips of Romney, during his campaigns for office in Massachusetts, stressing his support for "safe and legal" abortion and his commitment to preserving and protecting "a woman's right to choose."

As he has many times before, and as he will have to many times in the future, Romney made the case that his switch on the issue --- he now strongly opposes abortion rights --- was not a matter of political expediency (i.e., the difference between running in a liberal state and wooing socially conservative Republicans nationwide).

Wallace also threw this at Romney: "Researchers at Northeastern University (in Boston) looked at the economic performance of Massachusetts during the Romney years (2003-07) and said it was one of the worst in the country."

The former governor's initial response: "Well, I've got very different statistics than you do and than they do."

We don't doubt that he does, but politicians generally don't benefit from getting down into the weeds with statisticians. We imagine Romney will be trying out more effective ways to parry such queries as his campaign progresses.

He clearly learned a lesson on one front. ...

Wallace noted that at a campaign stop in Iowa last week, Romney "caused a bit of a stir" when he was asked about the fact that none of his five adult sons had served in the military. As part of his response, Romney said, "One of the ways that my sons are showing support for our nation is helping me get elected because they think I'd be a great president."

Asked Wallace: "Can you understand why that answer has upset some people?"

Said Romney: "Oh, I misspoke there."

No kidding.

In perhaps the show's most memorable moment, Wallace revisited a flap that (dare we say it?) dogged Romney in late June: the revelation that during a family vacation years ago, a pet Irish Setter went along ... on top of the car.

Romney quickly defended himself, saying the dog (named Seamus) traveled in a "completely airtight kennel" mounted on the car's roof.

But Wallace would have none of it. "Well, I've got to tell you, Massachusetts law and dog lovers — and I'm one of them — take this seriously" he sniffed. "Massachusetts law prohibits carrying an animal on top of a car, even in a kennel, as cruel and inhuman. Do you really think you did nothing wrong?

Replied Romney: "I wasn't familiar with that in terms of Massachusetts law. Love my dog. ..."

You can check out the complete transcript here.

An attempt at humor involving canines also tripped up Huckabee over the weekend.

The former Arkansas governor has won praise for the wit he frequently displays as a campaigner. But when it was his turn to speak Saturday at the Ames gathering, he hit a sour note right out of the gate.

“A Republican in my state feels about as out of place as Michael Vick at the Westminster dog show,” he quipped.

Not surprisingly, few laughed at the reference to the horrific dog abuse charges pending against the Atlanta Falcons quarterback.

Huckabee's bad taste notwithstanding, he boosted his political prospects with his surprise second-place showing in the straw poll. He talked about the results on CBS' "Face the Nation," while Brownback discussed his third-place showing on ABC's "This Week."

The Times' Michael Finnegan has the complete story on the day's developments after the Ames straw poll here on this website and in Monday's print editions.

-- Don Frederick 

Comments

[rearose]

vote romney is disastrous in this country -republican dont help to create jobs and dont help poor people and middle class- the repub;lcan party are the party who destroy america economically its already destroed under the republican party- dont cry third time if you guy the people pick republcan ok?

[Dennis Wade]

Claiming victory over someone who hasn't deigned to compete against you is like a dog managing to catch his own tail.

[Stacy]

This stroke has lost all credibility with me. just like Bush and Cheney. First as I understand Romney has never served in the military or a conflict. How can these politicians support a war when they have never served themselves, another joke. When asked why his sons have not volunteered for Iraq, his response is his sons are serving their nation by helping him get elected. What an moronic analogy, we have brave young soldiers risking there lives daily in Iraq and this ass thinks his sons are doing the same. If you truly support the war like Bush, Cheney and this Mo claim they do, then show the country you are truly commited and send your children and grandchildren, your better yet serve yourself. Thousands of families scarifice for this debacle and this moron has his sons on an unlimited expense account risking their lives in Iowa while their asses get wider. Scary!

[Sheryl]

Neither Franklin Roosevelt nor Harry Truman ever served in the miltary, but they seem to have done an acceptable job defeating the Nazi's in Europe and the Emporer of Japan.

Eisnenhauer was in charge of the entire European theatre in that war, and yet managed to screw up Korea and get us involved in Vietnam, and Kennedy only made THAT worse.

Miltary experience is no guarantee of good military leadership.

I'm not convinced that Mitt is the guy I want heading the Republican ticket, but he's certainly higher on my list of prefered candidates than Giuliani at this point. AND PLEASE:

Someone explain to me just how his CHILDREN'S choices about how to live their lives and support their families--i.e.., not joining the military--has anything to do with Mitt's campaign today. Is this a question because all the Romney children are male? Because I certainly haven't heard any questions about why Chelsea Clinton hasn't signed up to stand a post somewhere in Iraq.

People join the military for 1 of 2 reasons: they have a passionate desire to serve in a military service, or they have very little money/opportunity/education and see it as a way to get out of the environment they're in and maybe find a way to go to college or better their life in some way via the skills they acquire. (I know any number of highly paid mechanics that got their basic skills in the Army.)

That none of Romney's sons had neither the passion or the need and consequently made other career choices is utterly irrelevant today.

The thing about Romney that I find appealing is that he very, very clearly says, "I made a mistake" when he makes one, and tells you how he intends to correct it.

When he says something badly, he says very clearly, "I misspoke--let me be more clear."

And when life or new information changes the picture he's looking at, he's not afraid to say, "Hey, I didn't know that before! Well, that changes things.
We need to do something else" and then he DOES the something else.

His record is that of a man who has very clear core values, very clear personal intentions, and very clear long term goals; who goes about achieving those goals in ways that are consistent with his values and ethics; and who does his best to keep his word insofar as it's in his power to keep it. His record says he's more concerned about actually getting the work done, than in how people view way he does the work.

He may not be the right candidate to elect, but I honestly think he's far and away the best PERSON in the presidential race.