comMITTed to Romney!

Visit CBS News to watch the entire video.

He goes further in depth about his faith than he has before…

I’m happy about it, I have felt that it’s been a shame that he’s had to be so careful (understandably so) about talking about his faith. Every other candidate (like Mike’s post from earlier from the Boston Globe piece) can talk openly and freely about their faith. They can meet with religious leaders of their faith whenever they want (press in hand even). But, Governor Romney has to fight against such utter bigotry on this issue that he is shackled. I’m sure that privately he speaks to leaders of the church, etc., but it’s just not the same as the other candidates can do.

I am hoping that it becomes less and less of an issue, but at least for now that looks almost impossible. So, he has to take what he can get and hope that it turns out for the positive. It’s so nice to see some evangelicals coming out and endorsing him for President. It was absolutely awesome to see him win the FRC straw poll vote, it’s just so unfortunate that the faith issue has to dog him so badly all the time. But, because Governor Romney is who he is, and he’s faced this sort of rejection his entire life if anyone can overcome it he can.

Here’s Bob Schieffer’s written commentary after the interview:

(CBS) Weekly commentary by CBS Evening News chief Washington correspondent and Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer.
When former Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2000, he said he believed in God and would say no more about it than that. He said the rest was his business.

That’s a good answer as far as I am concerned. That’s why - when I interviewed former Governor Romney - I asked how much of his faith he felt obligated to share with voters.

I brought it up because polls show many Americans say they just won’t vote for a Mormon. For a Mormon politician, that’s not a religious problem, it’s a political problem.

So when Romney said he was happy to be asked, I asked.

I found his answers interesting. He outlined how he saw the relationship of his religion to the duties of the presidency in much the way that John Kennedy explained his faith in that 1960 speech after people questioned his Catholicism.

Romney didn’t go as far as Kennedy but I came away feeling I knew more about who he was and that helps to make a political, not a religious judgment.

Had he said his religion was none of my business, I would have taken that as a legitimate answer. In America, what we choose to tell others about our faith is nobody’s business but our own.

Kennedy said he hoped no one would vote for or against him because he was Catholic. Romney said the same.

I think they got that part exactly right.

CBS News Face the Nation Transcript

Update:
YouTube now has Bob Schieffer’s Commentary…

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