Mitt Romney tells ’60 Minutes’ about his nightly prayers

Sunday night the CBS news program “60 Minutes” aired exclusive, extended interviews with presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama in which the two men separately answered many of the same questions.

One of the highlights of the Romney portion occurred when the Republican nominee told interviewer Scott Pelley about his prayer practices. Per the transcript posted by Fox News:

[BEGIN]

PELLEY: Presidents and presidential candidates are booked down to the minute. And I wonder if you ever have a moment to be alone with your own thoughts. If so, when? And what does that mean to you?

ROMNEY: Well, at the end of the day, usually at about 10 o’clock, things have finally wound down. And I’m able to spend a little time. I talk to Ann. She is on her own schedule. And we — we spend 15 or 20 minutes on the phone. And then I read. And I think. I think about the coming day and think about what I want to accomplish. I pray. Prayer is a time to connect with — with the divine, but also time, I’m sure, to concentrate one’s thoughts, to meditate, and — and to imagine what might be.

PELLEY: You pray every night before you go to bed?

ROMNEY: I do pray every night, yeah.

PELLEY: What do you ask for?

ROMNEY: That’s between me and God. But mostly wisdom and — and understanding. I — I seek to understand things that I don’t understand.

[END]

In addition to talking about prayer, Romney also spoke confidently about his chances of winning the upcoming presidential election.

“Romney said (on ‘60 Minutes’) his campaign team is doing ‘a very good job’ and knows how to win,” PBS Newshour’s Rundown blog reported Monday morning. “He promised he’d remain focused on the economy as he appeals to people who are undecided ahead of the Nov. 6 contest.”

The other half of the “60 Minutes” episode featured Steve Kroft interviewing President Obama. Washington Post blogger Jennifer Rubin excoriated Obama for downplaying the recent attack on the U.S. consulate in Bengazi, Libya, that killed four Americans as a “bump in the road.”

“Had Romney said such a preposterous and grossly insensitive thing as Obama did,” Rubin wrote, “there would be calls for him to quit the race; alas, when Obama does it’s not even front-page news for most of the mainstream media.”

J.G. Askar is a graduate of BYU’s J. Reuben Clark Law School and member of the Utah State Bar. Contact him at jaskar@desnews.com or 801-236-6051.