NBC Interviews Mormon Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, 2012 U.S. presidential candidate and member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (often mistakenly called the Mormon Church), participated in his first television interview since the election televised Sunday, March 3, 2013.  Although Romney was reinstated to the Board of Directors of Marriott International, he has otherwise been out of the public eye since the election, living in San Diego at the family home there.  However, he drove home the point at the interview that he wants to stay involved with helping America and Americans succeed, especially to help the jobless.

Just a few months into the second 4-year term of Barack Obama, the Congress and President were not able to overcome an impasse and allowed a “sequester” to take place that will result in automatic cuts in the nation’s spending.  The cut isn’t huge, but what is cut might not be the wisest choices for Americans.  In the interview, Romney expressed his dissatisfaction with the way things were handled, said there didn’t need to be an impasse, and wished he were there to fix it.

There were over 2000 comments to NBC’s online article about Romney’s interview, and they were mostly full of partisan vitriol.  The anti-Romney’s found him too rich and too white to understand the concerns of poor minorities and seemed to distrust Ann Romney for the same reasons — too rich, too white.  Those that were pro-Romney seemed to view Obama as an incompetent socialist playing to the poor.  These are the same views that divided partisan lines during the election.  Even if Romney were to lack empathy for the poor, poverty is an issue that is always on the table, and it might take a crackerjack businessman to work the numbers in their favor without distributing the assets of those who actually pay taxes to do it.  In other words, without veering toward socialism.

Romney is making his first public address in two weeks, at C-PAC, a conservative group’s annual conference in Washington, D.C.

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