'This Is Not a Bluff'

Just to go back, he has said repeatedly that he supports strict constructionists, right? So, that much he's already done.
That's one.

Okay. So he's passed that test.
The thing is to do the whole basket. And if he also said, "I will not veto any legislation that comes across my desk that restricts abortion. And if he were then to further say, "I will veto any legislation that comes to my desk that expands abortion rights …" If he did that he would mitigate the damage.

Is there a short list of people you could imagine serving as the [candidate of a] third party?
No. I haven't really thought about it. And as I said, I won't do anything to help formulate a third party.

What's your view of Romney?
Well, he seems to have been an extremely effective chief executive officer. He seems to have been a very confident governor. I don't have a problem with his recent conversion to the pro-life, pro-marriage stance. The media does, and the reason is [that] the media overwhelmingly is on the other side of that issue. So they see any switch away from their position as obviously having some nefarious connotation.

Well, I think the term "flip-flopper" was coined by your side, wasn't it?
Well, not by me … But I think that if he wants to gain the kind of support [from] evangelicals that he wants, he needs to give a JFK-type speech [in which Kennedy said he was "not the Catholic candidate for president" but rather a candidate "who happens also to be a Catholic"]. I have told him this.

What are the three or four things that he absolutely needs to say more vigorously?
For starters he needs to quit trying to convince evangelicals that Mormonism is an orthodox, with a small o, Trinitarian, with a capital T, Apostolic, with a capital A, faith. He is not going to win that argument [and] he doesn't need to try. That's not the issue. Kennedy didn't try to defend Catholicism. He defended the right of a Catholic to run for president. What I think Romney has to do is he has to give a speech in which he defends the right of a Mormon to run for president and appeals to Americans' basic sense of fair play. I would encourage him to say that "there was no higher percentage of Mormons in my administration than there were Mormons in the percentage of the population in Massachusetts." That is a concern that has been expressed to me by my constituents—that he would have a disproportionate number of Mormons in his administration.