Mitt Romney's only serious challenger this year: himself (Orig. photo: Pool/Reuters)
While various pundits ponder on whether Mitt Romney's religion will be a factor, or is a factor, or how much of a factor it might be, John Aravosis
points out this Mitt Romney story from 2007. In it, GOP presidential contender Romney expresses the opinion that yes, he would discriminate against people based on their religion. You know,
so long as it was that religion:
I asked Mr. Romney whether he would consider including qualified Americans of the Islamic faith in his cabinet as advisers on national security matters, given his position that "jihadism" is the principal foreign policy threat facing America today. He answered, "…based on the numbers of American Muslims [as a percentage] in our population, I cannot see that a cabinet position would be justified. But of course, I would imagine that Muslims could serve at lower levels of my administration."
I don't even understand that answer. The question was whether he would consider including a Muslim American as a national security adviser, he says no, but lesser positions, yes? And it's because there aren't enough Muslim Americans to "justify" hiring one? Huh?
The only thing I can parse out of his response is that Romney's position on religion is the same as that of every other conservative. You must not discriminate against me for my religion. Everyone else, though? It's fine. Why is that, exactly?