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Opinion: Obama takes a curveball at an Iowa Q & A

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Maybe not the question that might first come to mind in the closing campaign days before the Iowa caucuses. But which Republican would Sen. Barack Obama endorse?

On the stump in northern Iowa today, on the third day of his six-day bus tour with The Times’ Louise Roug covering his every move and word, Obama was drawn into an assessment of rival Republican candidate Mitt Romney. A young woman brought up the former Massachusetts governor during the question and answer portion of a campaign event with maybe 150 people in the elementary school gym in New Hampton.

‘Every time I see a commercial with Mitt Romney on TV,’ said the woman, ‘I want to throw something at it and scream obscene words.’

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‘Wow, I feel you,’ Obama replied.

‘I just wanted to say to anyone who’s thinking about voting for Mitt Romney that—’ she said, but Obama quickly interrupted:

‘Hold on a second, sweetie,’ he said, ‘I know you have an opinion about Mitt, but we don’t want to use the forum to dog Mitt even though he does sometimes use his town hall meetings to dog me.’ Obama encouraged her to ask him a question instead.

‘I was just wondering your personal viewpoint on everything Mitt Romney?’

The crowd –- and Obama –- laughed.

‘He’s accomplished,’ the senator answered, overcoming his earlier reluctance to comment. ‘He’s very wealthy. He’s a good-looking guy. He’s got nice hair.’

If Romney becomes the Republican nominee, and if Obama becomes the Democratic nominee, Obama said he’ll be happy to debate him.

As if to kick start that debate early, Obama threw out a familiar bait: charging Romney with flip-flopping. ‘It seems like [his views] change quite a bit from day to day,’ Obama observed. ‘That’s why it will be fun to debate him -- if he ends up being the nominee.’

A lot of snowy ground to cover before then, however--for both men.

--Andrew Malcolm

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