Mitt Romney campaign: `Misspoke' About Sons' Military Choice

Romney, Winner in Iowa, `Misspoke' About Sons' Military Choice Avram Goldstein
Sun Aug 12, 11:16 AM ET
Bloomberg

Mitt Romney, who won the Iowa Republican straw poll yesterday, said he ``misspoke'' when he suggested that his sons' work on his presidential campaign was comparable to serving in the military in Iraq.

``I misspoke,'' the former Massachusetts governor said today on ``Fox News Sunday.'' ``It's not service to the country, it's service for me, and there's just no comparison there.''

At an event in Iowa last week, Romney was asked why his adult sons hadn't enlisted in the military and responded by saying: ``One of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping me get elected because they think I'd be a great president,'' according to the Associated Press.

Romney said today that he ``didn't mean in any way to compare service in the country with my boys in any way. Service in this country is an extraordinary sacrifice being made by individuals and their families.''

Romney admitted the mistake in an interview in which he also hailed his victory with 31 percent of the vote in the Iowa straw poll.

``We've turned our people out,'' Romney told Fox News. ``I won. Can't do better than that. That's exactly what I was hoping for.''

Fueled by the biggest campaign war chest of the Republican presidential hopefuls, Romney deployed his sons and nearly 100 other members of his family throughout Iowa to help him win the event on the campus of Iowa State University in Ames.

Victory

The victory, while not giving Romney any committed delegates for the 2008 Republican convention, may be an early indication of Iowa Republican sentiment before state caucuses likely to be held in January.

Romney yesterday received 4,516 of the ballots cast in the Iowa straw poll or 31 percent. He was followed by former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee with 18 percent, and Senator Sam Brownback, of Kansas, with 15 percent. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Arizona Senator John McCain and expected candidate Fred Thompson, a former Tennessee senator, skipped the event.

The also-rans in the straw poll were Representative Tom Tancredo, of Colorado, who won 13 percent of the votes, Representative Ron Paul, of Texas, with 9 percent, and former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson, who got 7 percent. Representative Duncan Hunter, of California, Giuliani, McCain and Fred Thompson all received a little over 1 percent.