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Paul Ryan waited until the end of the presidential campaign to bring up religion. Here's what he said on a Value Voters call via NY Times:
Representative Paul D. Ryan accused President Obama on Sunday of taking the country down a path that compromised Judeo-Christian values and the traditions of Western civilization.
The remarks came in a conference call with evangelical Christians, sandwiched between public rallies in which he often spoke of the Romney-Ryan ticket’s promise to bridge partisan divides if elected.Mr. Ryan’s campaign plane touched down in Colorado late on Sunday, his fourth state in a hectic day of rallies meant to maximize turnout on Election Day, and he spoke by phone to the Faith and Freedom Coalition, a group founded by the conservative Christian strategist Ralph Reed.
“It’s a dangerous path,” Mr. Ryan said, describing Mr. Obama’s policies. “It’s a path that grows government, restricts freedom and liberty and compromises those values, those Judeo-Christian, Western civilization values that made us such a great and exceptional nation in the first place.
Has anyone flip floppped on religious values more than Mitt? These statements are usually out of bounds for candidates to attack each other with, but I imagine the RMoney team is very nervous about tomorrow and are pulling out all the stops no matter how awful. As Digby and Adele Stan say, the Romney/Ryan campaign has been the most racist campaign in recent memory.
Now we turn to this video that has reemerged from 2007 in which Romney is actually forced to discuss his Mormon beliefs.
Mitt Romney has largely avoided discussing the details of his Mormon faith throughout this year’s presidential race, speaking in general terms about his church-related values and charitable deeds. But the revival this week of a testy 2007 interview caught on video offers a reminder of the struggles Romney has confronted as a politician wary of being defined, or confined, by his faith.
The video, which has become an Internet sensation in the closing days of his campaign to unseat President Obama, shows Romney sparring off-air with an Iowa radio talk show host over the tenets and beliefs of Mormonism — including a discussion of abortion and the second coming of Jesus Christ — and scolding the interviewer for bringing it up.
The beltway media has deemed it inappropriate in discussing the arcane beliefs held by the Mormon Church so Mitt has been off the hook explaining what he believes this election which has done a disservice to all Americans. Well, back in 2007 talk show host Jan Mickelson didn't let him off the hook and asks pertinent questions about Romney's flip flopping on his Mormon beliefs. Mitt didn't like it one bit. Romney refuses to discuss his church's views on anything with the bogus talking point that he's running for secular office so go f*&k yourself.
Democratic strategist Rosen said she had been struck by Romney’s explanation in the video of how his shifting views on abortion over the years were unrelated to the views of his church, which opposes abortion. Anti-abortion politicians, she said, typically cite their religion as a primary factor in shaping their views on the issue.
“I just thought that was the most voluble explanation of his anti-choice view that we’ve seen,” Rosen said.
The issue came up in the 2007 interview when Mickelson asked Romney why his past support for abortion rights had not violated Mormonism. The question prompted a visibly angry Romney to argue that the church prohibits abortions but does not bar members from supporting the rights of others to make their own choices.
Romney did not point out that he had contended with the political implications of the church’s abortion views in the past. A former aide to Romney from his time as a leader in the Boston church would later recall that Romney had visited Salt Lake City shortly before his 1994 Senate bid, polling in hand, to show members of the church hierarchy that it was impossible to win in Massachusetts without supporting abortion rights. At the time, Romney told the aide, Ron Scott, that he had “left a few bridges burning, or at least smoldering.”
In the 2007 video interview, Romney told Mickelson that his opposition to abortion rights came about from a political decision, when as governor he faced a choice about the use of embryonic stem cells.
“Politically, I looked at it, I said, ‘You know what, that’s wrong,’” Romney told Mickelson. “And it’s not a Mormon thing, it’s a secular position to say, ‘You know what, I was wrong, we should have as a society a prohibition on abortion under the following circumstances.’ But it’s not violating my faith, let me assure you.”
Mickelson also quizzed Romney about his past statements that Christ would return to Jerusalem, a view shared by other Christians but which Mickelson argued was not the true view of Mormons. Some Mormons believe Missouri, one of the states traversed by early Mormon pioneers in their escape from persecution, is the site of the Garden of Eden and one of the places that Christ will rule from.
Romney was really pissed that his off air conversation was recorded by what he said was a hidden camera, which it was not.
One other aspect of the interview annoyed him, too.
“Unbeknownst to me,” Romney said, “he had a hidden camera on the console, so this then popped up on the Internet.”
Mickelson, in an interview, called Romney’s subsequent comments surprising.
“There were two cameras mounted on tripods,” the talk show host recalled. “This was not at a bar, it was a radio talk show in front of cameras. What did he think was going to happen?”
Candidates know everything they say in a media setting is recorded so Mitt's not fooling anybody, but it was still fascinating to watch the two debate. Mickelson was asking him about his religion because Romney has flip flopped even Mormon beliefs to get elected so Jan wanted to know who they were actually electing. I wonder if the Grandma killer really believes that Romney's Mormon beliefs are much more detrimental to America than Obama's.