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--Marcia Vickers, Fortune senior writer
PANAMA CITY, Fla.
-- Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said he accepted an apology Monday from GOP rival Sam Brownback for an e-mail disparaging his Mormon religion that a campaign aide sent to Iowa GOP leaders.
Brownback, a Kansas senator, made a telephone call to the former Massachusetts governor, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
"He said that religious attacks don't have any place in politics and, of course, we agree on that," Romney said. "I told him that was not a big matter to me. If I can't
stand the heat I shouldn't be in the kitchen."
Romney's campaign wasted no time in responding, with spokesman Kevin Madden sending out an e-mail titled "When Faltering Campaigns Attack!" The e-mail claims Romney's 2005 remarks were taken out of context and said circulating the video was "a last-ditch attempt to maintain relevance" by McCain. "Governor Romney consistently maintained, in an effort to protect the sanctity of life, that he would fight attempts to weaken the state's existing abortion laws," Madden said in a statement. "Maintaining existing laws in a state like Massachusetts was an important fight in and of itself." The campaign added, "the McCain campaign's motives are obviously borne of desperation. Their actions are both sad and unfortunate."
"If you've ever thought there's a fly-by-the-seat-of-one's-pants feeling to the Giuliani presidential campaign, you are probably right. None of Giuliani's senior staff--campaign manager Mike DuHaime, senior adviser Tony Carbonetti, political director Mark Campbell, and communications director Katie Levinson--has much experience in presidential politics. An aide says Giuliani is playing catch-up, having made a relatively late entry into the race. Compared with the hyperorganized campaign of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, Giuliani's is haphazard. Sometimes schedules are handed out just 24 hours before the events in question. Statements from the candidate or senior staff happen on the order of a few a week, not the constant barrage of emails that come from Team Romney."
"At about the midpoint of the year, a few things are clear -- Fred Thompson will run, John McCain is in trouble, Rudy Giuliani is not invincible and Mitt Romney still has many thresholds to cross."
"I think we would hope to turn Iraq security over to their own military and
their own security forces, and if presence in the region is important for us than we have other options that are nearby," Romney said.
We have communicated to the people in the region and the country that we're not looking to have a permanent presence in Iraq and I don't think we want to communicate that we were just kidding about that," he said.Romney noted that the U.S. has bases in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar, and said: "We can have a presence in the region, but I think that at this time we need to exercise care not to communicate to insurgents something that they can use to say 'Ah ha! America does intend to be an occupier forever!'"
Like I said, I am feeling bullish about Romney of late. He leads our polling averages for both New Hampshire and Iowa. If he wins both of those primaries, and finishes at least in second in Nevada, the whole nation will have a week to sit and stew on these developments before Florida. I have been a skeptic, but there is something about his campaign that both the Giuliani and McCain campaigns seem to lack.--Jay Cost