ROMNEY: I CAN'T IMAGINE ANYTHING MORE AWFUL THAN POLYGAMY'
Thu May 10 2007 15:43:11 ET
In what may be his strongest public statements against the Bush administration, presidential candidate Mitt Romney says his fellow Republicans in the Bush White House made mistakes in Iraq that the country is still paying for. Romney also deplores the polygamy his ancestors practiced in the 19th Century in a 60 MINUTES interview with Mike Wallace to be broadcast Sunday, May 13 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
"I think the administration made a number of errors," he tells Wallace. "I don't think we were adequately prepared for what occurred. I don't think we did enough planning. I don't think we considered the various downsides and risks," says Romney.
He says President Bush isn't the only one to blame. "He's the person where the buck stops, but it goes through the secretary of defense and the planning agencies, the Department of State -- it's the whole administration," Romney says. "They made mistakes... and we're paying for those mistakes."
The president's "surge" policy of putting additional troops into Iraq may never work, says Romney, but it deserves a chance. "We're going to know in a matter of months if it's working or not working."
Romney acknowledges that voters may have a problem with his religion's history of polygamy. "That's part of the history of the church's past that I understand is troubling to people," he says. The practice, outlawed before 1900, is equally troubling to him. "I have a great-great grandfather. They were trying to build a generation out there in the desert and so he took additional wives as he was told to do. And I must admit, I can't image anything more awful than polygamy," he tells Wallace.
Romney's wife, Ann, who converted to the Mormon Church before they were married, is also interviewed. When asked whether they broke the strict church rule against premarital sex, Romney says, "No, I'm sorry, we do not get into those things," but still managed to blurt out "The answer is no," before ending that line of questioning.
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