Mitt Romney 60 Minutes Interview: Hoping to Kick Start Campaign

If you vote for Mitt Romney you're voting for Satan! That's what one Christian minister, Bill Keller, offered Friday in an online devotional. Mitt Romney hopes to educate Keller and others about his Mormon faith on 60 Minutes this evening. The segment should also give the Utah United States Presidential hopeful a much needed jolt for his campaign run.

Romney most certainly has gotten his fair share of press over the past week, however. Al Sharpton and others bashing his faith; Romney coming forward that his great grandfather had numerous wives; and following the 60 Minutes piece, he's bound to come under fire from the gay populace. Mitt Romney will be defending his stance on gay marriage.

''This isn't just some temporary convenience here on Earth, but we're people that are designed to live together as male and female"

Heading into tonight's show, Romney had impressive odds of 7 to 1 of becoming the next US President. The payout would be a hefty $700 on a $100 bet. Odds were slashed from 10 to 1 earlier in the week.

"The two things that Romney essentially has to do is, one, he has to take a strong, Kennedy-like stand, separating himself from the religion as a political figure," Julian Zelizer, a professor at Boston University tells the Salt Lake Tribune. "The second is just saying it all again and again . . . so come primary season everybody's heard it all and it's not that interesting."

Romney's spokesman, Kevin Madden, said an overwhelming majority of people Romney meets "have been welcoming and respectful towards him on the issue of faith."

"There isn't a focus on the denomination or doctrine that distinguishes each American, but instead there is a common interest in talking about strong values and the example Governor Romney sets in how he lives his life," he said.

In regard to his opposition to gay marriage, Romney cites the scriptures:

''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,'' he tells interviewer Mike Wallace, according to an excerpt CBS released Friday. ''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.''

In addition to the topic of gay marriage and polygamy, Romney finally used some strong language when discussing President Bush and the war in Iraq.

“I think the administration made a number of errors. I don’t think we were adequately prepared for what occurred. I don’t think we did enough planning. I don’t think we considered the various downsides and risks,” Romney said.

But while the 60 Minutes interview could help to kick start Mitt Romney's campaign, others continue to kick him real hard in the you-know-what, and religion sits right at the core.

Janet Folger in her Faith2Action Blog questions why Romney has seemingly acted indifferent towards Catholics in the past.

"Why did Romney force Catholic hospitals in Massachusetts to hand out the abortion drug "Plan B" or close their doors? Tell Boston's largest adoption agency, Catholic Charities, they had to place vulnerable orphan children in the homes of homosexual activists or go out of business?"

Likewise there is a concern he could alienate African Americans.

Brigham Young, the 2nd Prophet of the Mormon sect said: "You see some classes of the human family that are black, uncouth, uncomely, disagreeable, sad, low in their habits, wild, and seemingly without the blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed upon mankind.

"Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so."

Romney has been somewhat quiet on the subject

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Carrie Stroup, Gambling911.com

Originally published May 13, 2007 6:19 pm ET