Imho, this kind of thinking is much more an issue than his religion.
Ditto
Wouldn’t it be nice if Mitt were the only Republican who thought that way? This stuff permeates both parties. Who cares if the person is the most qualified for the job as long as they are the right color, or the right sex, to get kudos from (or at least appease) the BIG BEAN COUNTERS like the NY Times, etc.
“Mitt thinks cabinet positions should be apportioned based on group representation in society? “
NO, THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF THAT.
The headlines have said “Romney Opposed Naming Muslim To Cabinet” but Romney merely said 2 honest, straight up things:
1. ... account in the Christian Science Monitor by an Islamic businessman who claims Romney said that he “cannot see that a cabinet position would be justified” for a Muslim. ie no reserved spot.
2. “George Harris, a state GOP official, told us that he asked Romney at a private fundraiser if he would have any Muslims in his Cabinet. According to Harris, Romney’s reply was “most likely not.”” - TPM
“How Clintonesque of him.”
How Clintonesque of you to twist the meaning around. He gave exactly the kind of answer you would have wanted him to. He did NOT talk about apportioning based on population, but has spoken of simply hiring the best, whoever they are.
....
“...when Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney recently addressed a group of a prominent local conservatives at a Las Vegas fundraiser, George lobbed the first question: “If you are elected President,” he asked, “will you include any Muslim members in your cabinet?”
In the seconds before former Massachusetts Governor Romney responded, you could have heard a pin drop.
His (admittedly, very smooth) answer in a nutshell? “Not likely.””
SINCE WHEN IS IT A SCANDAL THAT IT’S “NOT LIKELY” MITT WILL HAVE A MUSLIM IN THE CABINET?
I simply can’t think of a better answer than that. He won’t reserve a spot for a muslim, nor will he bar them totally.
Even if some Muslims are upset about his lack of political correctness in how he answered, it’s the right answer.
More on Romney’s actual views on this:
http://tpmelectioncentral.com/2007/11/romney_denies_he_said_putting_muslim_in_cabinet_isnt_justified.php
REPORTER: Governor, there is a report today that a businessman says that a close fundraiser in Vegas a couple weeks ago, he asked you a question about having an Islamic person in your cabinet and you said that based on the population of Muslims in the United States that you don’t think it would be justified?
GOVERNOR MITT ROMNEY: No. His question was did I need to have a Muslim in my Cabinet to be able to confront radical Jihad and would it be important to have a Muslim in my Cabinet and I said, ‘No, I don’t think that you have to have a Muslim in the Cabinet to be able to take on radical Jihad anymore than during the Second World War we needed to have a Japanese-American to understand the threat that was coming from Japan or something of that nature.’ I just rejected that argument number one, and then number two, I point out that people who would be part of my Cabinet is something that I really haven’t given a lot of thought to at this point, but I don’t have boxes that I check off as to their ethnicity. It’s not that I have to have a certain number of each different ethnic group; instead I would choose people based upon their merits and their capabilities.