Mitt Romney Wants To Re-Tool Washington

Sixty-year-old Mitt Romney is a dark horse in the contest for the Republican presidential nomination. Although he is the least known of the frontrunners, he's raised more money – $21 million – than any other Republican candidate.

As correspondent Mike Wallace reports, Romney attracted national attention when, as governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2006, he balanced the budget every year, without raising taxes. He ran the state like the hugely successful CEO he's been for over 20 years.

And that came after he had rescued the 2002 Olympic winter games from financial disaster. And Romney says that now that he's turned around the Olympics and Massachusetts, he's ready to do the same for all of the U.S.A.

"The rap on you of course is that you're too smooth, too handsome, too polished. Are you really known as matinee Mitt?" Wallace asks.

"That's the rap on you, Mike," Romney replies. "Too smooth, too polished."

But beneath the polish, there's the steel of a tough minded and seasoned executive who is used to running things his way. Romney is reportedly worth over half a billion dollars that he earned as a venture capitalist who used cost-cutting, bottom line zeal to help grow companies like Domino's Pizza and Staples and re-tool ailing companies into profitable successes.

Now he wants to re-tool Washington.

"It is time to cut out the mountains of waste and inefficiency and duplication in the federal government. I've done that in business. I've done it in the Olympics. I've done it in Massachusetts and frankly I can't wait to get my hands on Washington," Romney says.

"One thing people can be confident of is I have led and managed and I brought change to organizations. And if there's ever been a time that Washington needed to be changed it's now. It's a mess in Washington," he adds.

To many Americans, that mess in Washington has been created by his fellow Republican, George W. Bush.

Romney carefully follows Ronald Reagan's rule: never speak ill of a fellow Republican. But while he praises the president, he distances himself from Bush.

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"Well, because of Iraq," Romney says.

"You mean the president screwed up in Iraq?" Wallace asks.

"I think the administration made a number of errors," Romney says.

"Like for instance?" Wallace asks.

"Well, I don't think we were adequately prepared for what occurred. I don't think we had done enough planning, I don't think we'd considered the various downsides and risks," Romney says.

"We, is George W. Bush," Wallace remarks.

"Well, he's the person where the buck stops," Romney says. "But it's the whole administration."

"They screwed up," Wallace remarks.

"Well, they made mistakes. I'm not gonna use the same phrase you would. And we're paying for those mistakes," Romney says.

And, he says, there were misjudgments. "I think there was a strong, honest belief among people in our administration that we would be welcomed with open arms. And that Iraq would become a model of democracy for all of the Middle East. And you know what? We were wrong," Romney says.

But Bush is right, Romney says, about the current U.S. troop surge in Iraq, at least for now.

"I think we're gonna know in a matter of months if it's working or it's not working," he says.

Among the things he wants to do as president is increase U.S. troop strength overall by at least 100,000 and modernize military equipment. He wants to secure the Mexican border and decrease U.S. dependence on foreign oil. He's against gay marriage and civil unions and says that he'll hold the line on taxes.

Mitt is not the first Romney to run for president. His father, George, tried to win the presidency in 1968, after serving three terms as governor of Michigan and running American Motors. He lost the Republican nomination that year to Richard Nixon.

Willard Mitt Romney grew up the youngest of four in Bloomfield Hills, a posh suburb of Detroit. His parents, both Mormons, raised their children in that faith and today he is still a devout Mormon, who doesn't drink, smoke nor swear.

"One out of three people would worry about you as president because you are a Mormon. Why?" Wallace asks.

"There is part of the history of the church's past that I understand is troubling to people," Romney says. "Look, the polygamy, which was outlawed in our church in the 1800s, that's troubling to me. I have a great-great grandfather. They were trying to build a generation out there in the desert. And so he took additional wives as he was told to do. And I must admit I can't imagine anything more awful than polygamy."

He believes that Americans want a leader who is a person of faith. The particulars of that faith are irrelevant. What matters, he says, are values.

"What's at the heart of my faith is a belief that there's a creator. That we're all children of the same God," he says. "And that fundamentally the relationship you have with your spouse is important and eternal."

"This isn't just some temporary convenience here on earth, but we're people that are designed to live together as male and female and we're gonna have families. And that, there's a great line in the Bible that children are an inheritance of the Lord and happy is he who has or hath his quiver full of them," Romney says.

And Romney's quiver is very full: 60 Minutes met all 22 members of his family at the Romney lake house in New Hampshire.

Romney has been married to his wife Ann for 38 years. His five sons range in age from 37 to 25. There are five daughters-in-law and ten grandchildren.

Romney mandates that they all get together at least twice a year. This time, at the lake house, they came together to celebrate Ann's birthday. She is known as the CFO – Chief Family Officer.

Mitt and Ann fell in love in high school in Bloomfield Hills. She converted from Episcopal to Mormon while Mitt did missionary work in France for over two years. But later he joined her at Brigham Young University. And while he was away, Mitt says, he was terrified that he'd lose her to somebody else.

"You get all these Mormons out there with strict prohibition against premarital sex. They're young and they're attractive, the hormones work very well and people decide it's time to get married," Romney says.

Asked if he had premarital sex with Ann, Romney tells Wallace, "No, I'm sorry. We don't get into those things. The answer is no."

Three months after returning from France in 1969, Ann and Mitt were married. In 1975, Romney got joint degrees from Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School and he became a business consultant in Boston while Ann raised their five boys.

In 1998, Ann began to feel numbness in her right leg. It was multiple sclerosis.

But for over a year, the numbness and weakness progressed up her right side and debilitating fatigue set in. "I was no good. I couldn't shop. I couldn't cook. It took too much energy to even open the mail. And at that point I went into a very deep depression. I know you know all about that," she says.

"It was at that point that Mitt said, 'As long as you're here with me everything's ok and we can do everything together. What matters is that you're with me.' And it made me turn the switch and say 'It's time to start crawling out of this hole,'" Ann adds.

So she started riding horses, and she says with the help of both western and eastern medicine, her MS has gone into remission. Both Ann and Mitt agreed that her disease would not stop Romney from running for president.

"We're now in for keeps," Romney says. "If I'm lucky enough to become president of the United States, the country has to come first."

"I'm gonna be fine," Ann adds.

Their five boys support their decision.

"Three of you went to Harvard Business School, one to medical school. All married. Nobody seems to have rebelled, gone off the rails. How come?" Wallace asks.

"Where a lot is given a lot is expected. So we have to live up to that standard," Craig Romney tells Wallace.

While all of them have served their church doing missionary work around the world, their answers vary about putting on a uniform and going to war.

"I feel guilty having not done it," Josh Romney tells Wallace.

"I've seen a lot and read a lot that has made me say, 'My goodness, I hope I never have to do that,'" Ben Romney says.

"Not one agreed or thought about serving in the military," Wallace remarks.

"There are other sacrifices to make as well. And I hope to be able to make a sacrifice of that caliber at some point in my life," Matt Romney says.

"Did you ever serve in the armed forces?" Wallace asks Mitt Romney.

"I did not," Romney replies.

Why not?

"I was at college. Then I went off and served my church for two and a half years in a mission," Romney replies.

And because of his high lottery number, he was never drafted to serve in Vietnam, something he says he regrets to this day.

Romney's political career began in 1994, when he made a bid for the Senate in Massachusetts.

"Well, you were a horse's ass to run against Ted Kennedy," Wallace remarks.

"A white, male, Mormon, millionaire was not gonna beat Ted Kennedy in Massachusetts, but someone deserved to go out there and give him a real run for his money," Romney replies.

"And he killed you," Wallace replies.

"But I learned a lot," Romney says.

In order to make a credible run for the senate in liberal Massachusetts, Romney positioned himself as a moderate on many social issues, most notably abortion which he has always personally opposed.

"I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country," he said during the 1994 debate. "I believe that since Roe v. Wade has been the law for 20 years, that we should sustain and support it. And my personal beliefs, like the personal beliefs of other people should not be brought into a political campaign."

And he maintained that position when he ran for governor in 2002.

"I will preserve and protect a woman's right to choose and am devoted and dedicated to honoring my word in that regard," he said during the gubernatorial debate.

But two years later, he changed his mind about abortion rights, concerned he says that procedures like embryo cloning for stem cell research were diminishing the value of life.

"I believe that we have cheapened the value of human life. And that it is important to allow states to enact reasonable, reasonable pro-life legislation. And I am pro-life. And favor that legislation," Romney said.

What about the woman's right to choose?

"Let each state make their own choice," Romney says.

If that sounds like a flip-flop, it's not the only issue Romney has changed his mind about lately. Now that he's running for president he calls himself a social conservative. Just last August he signed on as a lifetime member of the NRA.

"Back in 1994 you said 'I supported the Brady Bill and a ban on assault weapons. That's not gonna make me the hero of the NRA. But then I don't line up with the NRA.' And now you're a member of the NRA,'" Wallace remarks.

"Well, we still don't line up 100 percent," Romney says.

"I know, but you're a member of the NRA?" Wallace points out.

"I believe in the right of people to bear arms," Romney says. "And support the work that the NRA is doing to protect the second amendment, but do we line up 100 percent on everything? Of course not."

And then there's his current pledge, when he's president, not to raise taxes.

"In 2002 you said 'I'm not intending to sign a document, a no new taxes pledge.' You said your spokesman was right when he called those pledges 'government by gimmickry,'" Wallace remarks. "Now that you say that you've signed a no new taxes pledge for Americans for tax reform. Really? Did you?

"Oh yes. Absolutely," Romney says.

Why did he change his mind?

"Well, I didn't change my mind. I was running for governor of Massachusetts," Romney explains. "And now I'm running for a different office. And I wanna make it very clear, I won't raise taxes."

"Who said that? Wasn't it a fellow by the name of Bush?" Wallace asks.

What happened?

"He changed his mind. And the tax pledge that I've looked at is very carefully drafted, it's narrow and on that narrow basis it was something I agreed with and was comfortable signing," Romney explains.

"Some critics say about you that you're a poster child for what they call 'chameleon politics.' That you lack core beliefs, that you'll do whatever it takes to get elected. What about it?" Wallace asks.

"You know, if you look at anybody who's a political statesman, they'd better learn how to change their mind when they realize they're wrong. I don't criticize Senator McCain for saying he voted against the Bush tax cuts, now saying he's for the Bush tax cuts. He made the change that I respect," Romney says.

"Mayor Giuliani has made some pretty significant changes as well with regards to abortion and funding of abortion and gun laws and so forth. But you know what? That's learning from experience," Romney adds.

This savvy, pragmatic politician says he's not worried about the national poll numbers. His strategy, he says, is to go after victories in the early primary states—Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.

"Look, if I do well in those first three and get the momentum from those wins, well that carries me to the nomination of my party," Romney says.

Produced By Ruth Streeter