Mitt's Missionary Life

(Hat Tip: Innisfree)

Interesting article on Mitt Romney's days as a Mormon Missionary (the reason he didn't serve in 'Nam) and at BYU from The New York Times.

Turns out, he wasn't the best of missionaries:

He was considered the free spirit of his crowd, the one who sneaked off to movies (discouraged for missionaries) and ate coq au vin (controversial because of his church’s prohibition on alcohol). He was a half-hearted Mormon whose beliefs, as he recalled recently, were “based on pretty thin tissue.”

And, as hard as it is to believe (sarcasm), Mitt was less than humble.

And he was eager to move up. After a promotion in early 1968, Mr. Romney complained that he was still subordinate to a fellow missionary.

“I went into the president’s office and said: look president, ‘ith eitha you orh me that is goin to run thith place,’” he wrote to a friend, again imitating a cartoon character. He said he got nowhere, adding: “Really, it’s not that bad — it’s just that I feel like I’ve been broken.”

Mr. Romney’s counterpart, Joel McKinnon, now president of a mission in Montreal, recalled: “He just had a million ideas a minute and couldn’t wait to try something new all the time.” When his suggestions were rebuffed, “He was a little frustrated, like he was working with a garden slug,” Mr. McKinnon said.

However, when tragedy struck the mission, Mitt got the opportunity to stretch his leadership muscles.

Just a few weeks later, though, Mr. Romney and Mr. McKinnon were thrust into new roles. Mr. Romney was at the wheel of car involved in a head-on collision on a country road, killing the wife of the mission president. Mr. Romney, who was not at fault in the accident, was knocked out — even mistakenly pronounced dead at the scene — but quickly recovered. When the president went back to the United States, Mr. Romney and Mr. McKinnon were left in charge of the other missionaries for three months.

Interesting that this is the first time we've heard this story. After all the puff pieces on Mitt in the local media, I'm surprised that Tommy Burr hasn't reported that Mitt was the driver in a fatal car accident.

Of course, that might come off as a negative, which is something the local media wouldn't share with us about Mitt.

-Bob