MittWatch: Open Mouth, Insert Foot

Romney didn't endear himself to anyone when he answered a question about whether or not he would appoint a Muslim to his fantasy presidential cabinet. Here's Mansoor Ijaz, who asked that question of Romney and wrote about the response for the Christian Science Monitor:

I asked Mr. Romney whether he would consider including qualified Americans of the Islamic faith in his cabinet as advisers on national security matters, given his position that "jihadism" is the principal foreign policy threat facing America today. He answered, "…based on the numbers of American Muslims [as a percentage] in our population, I cannot see that a cabinet position would be justified. But of course, I would imagine that Muslims could serve at lower levels of my administration."

So does that mean Romney would bypass Muslim candidates completely and possibly miss a good candidate for the job?

The Carpetbagger Report points out the ironies of Romney making such a statement, as he's asked people to open their minds about Mormons. David at Blue Mass Group called Romney's comment "one of the most appalling things I've heard any candidate for national office say, in this cycle or any other."

Perhaps Romney will discuss his comment tomorrow night at the CNN/YouTube debate, which he initially shied away from because he thought it would be degrading to take questions from a snowman. Please, please let there be a snowman tomorrow!

Image from Mitt Romney's presidential campaign site.