Mitt Romney is Sorry for Nothing in New Book, "No Apology"

Former Massachusetts Governor and 2008 Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney was on this program a few years ago, and Imus welcomed him back today by saying, “We liked him then, and maybe we still like him.”

Romney, we think, was hoping for the latter, appearing today to promote his book “No Apology,” which he said signifies that Americans should not apologize for their country’s greatness. 

“Our fighting men and women have freed more people from dictatorship than any other people in the world,” he said. “We’ve helped life people out of poverty. The President is wrong to go around apologizing for America.”

Convinced that Washington, and more specifically President Obama and the Democrats, have put the U.S. on a track of weakness and decline, Romney owed that Obama has done at least one thing right.

“He changed his mind,” Romney said, referring to Obama beefing up military presence in Afghanistan and not jumping ship immediately in Iraq.  To Imus’s point that Obama’s supporters might be disappointed, Romney said, “Members of his base have to be scratching their heads.”

He quickly changed tones, criticizing the lack of job growth in this country since Obama took office. “Raising taxes doesn’t help, cap-and-trade doesn’t help…taking over health care doesn’t help” he said, listing proposals the President has put forth. “The list is long of things he’s doing that have not helped.”

Despite a lot of hope at the outset, Romney’s was unsuccessful in his 2008 Presidential bid, a defeat blamed at least partially on him “flip-flopping” on issues like abortion. Asked to explain his shift toward a stricter pro-life agenda, Romney said he had never really considered himself pro-choice.

“What I said when I was running for Governor is that I would keep that law as it was, I would not change the law,” he said, referring to Massachusetts’s pro-choice law. But when a bill authorizing the creation of embryos for the purpose of experimentation crossed his desk, Romney said to himself, “I can’t be a part of creating new life for the purpose of destroying it. That makes me pro-life, and I understand that.”

Part of what make the abortion debate so inherently American, he added, is that it represents the value of freedom in this country—“almost our highest ideal,” he said—and the value of the sanctity of life.

Another obstacle Romney struggled to overcome in 2008 was his Mormon faith, though he played down its importance in his loss to Senator John McCain for the Republican nomination, saying that only a small majority of Americans really cared.

As for whether he’ll run in 2012, Romney said, “Time will tell.” So, yes.

-Julie Kanfer