Hatch speaking on Mitt

Orrin Hatch, asked what he thought about the '08 GOP Nomination, and Mitt Romney's chances:

"If (current Secretary of State) Condoleezza Rice came up, I think she’d blow people away.... I’ll just say this as a matter of fact: Mitt Romney has more management ability than any potential candidate on either side. He is one of the best managers in the country. He took over Massachusetts, which is an extremely liberal state with a totally dominant Democratic Legislature and turned a $3 billion deficit into a $1 billion surplus in just the few years he’s been in there.

The day I announced for president, I was on “Larry King Live” and he said “senator, how are you going to do it? Eighteen percent of the American people will not vote for a Mormon under any circumstances.” I found that to be true, but I think I helped break down some of those barriers. Mitt, I think, can overcome that.

I believe that if it came down to Mitt showing that he can do the job better than anybody else, I think he can make it."
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Interesting comments. I think Mitt would make a formidable candidate, if he's able to get past the religious bigotry, and get himself a decent campaign team. And, ya gotta love Hatch setting himself up to put a few feathers in his proverbial cap should Mitt actually get anywhere in the GOP primaries.

By the way, I'm very curious to see how Mitt does, so you'll probably see more posts from me on this topic.