Mitt Romney appeared yesterday on Pat Robertson's 700 Club. In the story covering the appearance, the Christian Broadcasting Network host, David Brody (guess they didn't trust Pat with this one), says, “[Romney is] right out of central casting for the presidency. It seems like he may have the whole package that folks potentially could be looking for.”
By the way, while on the show Romney told a story that I've never heard before about his missionary days in Paris, France. While in France, Romney apparently was involved in a horrific car accident. He says another car hit his car head-on and killed one of his fellow missionaries. Romney says he himself was pronounced dead at the scene, but he made a miraculous recovery.
Romney's stock may be rising in the ranks of conservative Christians, in part because other top Republican presidential hopefuls carry some baggage that these Christians are going to be hard pressed to ignore in the wake of their reaction to Bill Clinton's dalliance with Monica Lewinsky. As Steve Benen has written, "three Republicans who have topped several national, independent polls for the GOP's favorite 2008 nominee" have marriage issues. . . Sen. John McCain (affair, divorce), former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (affair, divorce, affair, divorce), and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (divorce, affair, nasty divorce)." Benen concludes: "Together, they form the most maritally challenged crop of presidential hopefuls in American political history."
Romney and his wife have reportedly been married for 37 years, and it looks like they have the kind of family that political operatives salivate over (scroll down the page to see a lovely picture of the Romney family).
As I've written before, Romney is going to face some real roadblocks with certain conservative evangelicals, but those roadblocks shouldn't be considered in a vacuum.
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