[O]n Thursday something happened that Romney could not control. At
the end of his speech in Texas on his Mormon faith and his view of
religion in public life, he got emotional. He lost it in the tiniest
way.
He was recalling the early days of the Continental Congress in
Philadelphia, on the brink of the Revolutionary War, when the early
Americans from various faiths were gathered together. They wanted to
pray, Romney said, but they did not know whose prayer to use.
"Then Sam Adams rose, and said he would hear a prayer from anyone of
piety and good character, as long as they were a patriot," Romney said,
reading off the teleprompter. "And so together they prayed, and
together they fought, and together, by the grace of God, they founded
this great nation."
The crowd began to applaud, and Romney's chin appeared to tense. In
the slightest way, his eyes seemed to moisten. For an instant he looked
vulnerable, like a young man who had been moved by his own words, by
his own hopes for his country. The preselected crowd, sensing this,
rose to its feet with a standing ovation. There were only three
sentences left in the speech, but the whole event was put on hold.
After a few more seconds, Romney collected himself and finished the
speech. [emph. added]
What's with all the waterworks? As a Romney skeptic, my cynical take is that, with folksy Mike Huckabee breathing down his neck, Romney is deliberately working to soften up his Stepford Husband image.
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