Candidate Spotlight: Republican Mitt Romney

Today's candidate spotlight is on former Governor Mitt Romney. The businessman-turned-public servant hails from "liberal" Massachusetts but has re-positioned himself as a uncompromising conservative on social issues and defense. Which Romney would emerge, should he take the nomination, is a question raised by critics and opponents.

Romney is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), commonly known as the Mormon Church. In his youth, he spent 30 months as a missionary in France; mission work is an integral part of the teaching of the church. By far the most wealthy candidate in the race, Romney has already invested about $9 million of his own money into the campaign. (He invested more than $6 million of his own money in his run for MA governor in 2002.)

Quotable: (from the Republican debates)

[On torture and waterboarding with a ticking bomb scenario; question posed by Brit Hume of Fox News]

The person's going to be in Guantanamo ... I'm glad that they're at Guantanamo... I don't want them on our soil. I want them in Guantanamo where they don't get the access to lawyers that they get when they're on our soil... Some people have said we ought to close Guantanamo. My view is that we ought to double Guantanamo...

Where you have the ticking bomb ... the President of the United States has to make the call and enhanced interrogation techniques have to be used. Not torture. But enhanced interrogation techniques. Yes.

Read more: profile of Mitt Romney, 2008 Election Central, Primary Calendar, Comparison of 2008 Democratic and Republican Presidential Candidate Fundraising - 3rd Quarter 2007, About.com 2008 Straw Poll. Romney's reigion speech, from Tom Head.

^{Photo by Getty Images}