Q&A: MITT ROMNEY
Transcript: Mitt Romney On Iowa, New Hampshire And Mike Huckabee

© National Journal Group Inc.
Friday, Jan. 4, 2008

National Journal's Linda Douglass sat down with Mitt Romney for the 14th edition of "National Journal On Air." This is a transcript of their conversation. Audio of the full show is also available.

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Q: I want to welcome Governor Romney, who has been kind enough to come from a sleepless night to talk to us here on "National Journal On Air." Welcome, Governor.

Romney: Thank you, Linda.

Q: So you're now heading for New Hampshire, but let's talk a little bit about what happened in Iowa. Obviously, Huckabee's victory came from religious conservative voters. How powerful a bloc of voters do you think they are going to be in the campaign going forward from here?

Romney: Well, I don't know that I'm the political consultant or pundit to be able to assess that precisely. My job is to go out with my message and to attract as many voters as I possibly can. I think that you're right that in Iowa that Mike Huckabee was able to tap into a natural base that he has as a minister and turn out very, very large numbers of evangelical Christians. I was pleased I got as much support from them as I did, but frankly, he got the lion's share of the support from evangelical Christians, and that gave him a very impressive win, but I don't think that's going to be the same feature in a place like New Hampshire or Michigan or other states, and so I think when you have larger contests which involve a primary process -- independents and Republicans alike in some cases -- it augurs well for a candidate who has my background.

Q: Do you think that Iowa is an anomaly?

Romney: No, I don't think it's an anomaly, but I do think when you have a caucus process that draws on a relatively small percentage of the population of a state, that it opens the doorway to a special coalition effort, and every candidate running for office thinks about coalitions they can put together, and I think Mike Huckabee had a good natural coalition and he put it together very well.

Q: You put a lot of money into this campaign so far. How much more are you prepared to put in?

Romney: Ah, that's a closely held secret that only my wife knows, and so that's not something we're talking about at this stage, but obviously we intend to keep going forward and anticipate that I'm going to be able to get the nomination. I was pleased with the fact that in Iowa, I came up against three household names everybody's heard of -- John McCain and Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson -- and I beat all three of them quite soundly, and now I've got New Hampshire, and if I can do the same thing here I'd be in great shape.

Q: Of course, we would have to agree that Huckabee was not exactly a household name.

Romney: No, and he pursued a very different strategy very effectively, which is that he had a natural base of evangelical voters and he drew them out, and their organization was able to turn voters out for him, which was very impressive.

Q: So -- just to go back to the money question for a second -- so you have certainly not ruled out putting more of your own money in the campaign?

Romney: I have not made any comments about my financial plans at all, and I'm going to keep it that way.

Q: So now you're going into New Hampshire, where McCain is your main competitor, it seems. What do you think is his greatest weakness? Where do you go after McCain?

Romney: Well, you know, I think if you look at Iowa and listen to what the people in Iowa said -- and frankly, I hear the same thing in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Michigan -- is that people are upset with Washington. They feel it is broken, unable to deal with the problems we have in our country today, and they want change in Washington, and Senator McCain is Washington. He's been there 27 years. There is simply no way he's going to be able to connect with voters across this country who want to see change in Washington. And so I believe that his greatest vulnerability is that he's been there so long, and he's had a chance to do what he can do, and it simply hasn't gotten the job done.

And we've seen him, for instance, vote against the Bush tax cuts, where I think he was on the wrong side of that issue. He's also voted for and pushed for McCain-Feingold, of course, which stripped some First Amendment rights from our citizens and, I think, has not helped at all the financing of campaigns. And finally, he was one of the major promoters of that final legislation relating to immigration which would've said that every illegal alien that was here in this country got to stay here forever, and I think those postures are going to be really troublesome for him.

Q: You talk about McCain being in Washington for such a long time. Do you think that his age should be in the minds of voters when they make this decision?

Romney: I don't think it will be. I think you know Americans can do whatever they'd like to, and they do, but I don't think that's going to be an issue in the campaign.

Q: OK, well, thank you so much, Governor Romney. We really do appreciate your taking time out of your very busy schedule, and we'll see you in New Hampshire.

Romney: Thanks so much.