Oof. Either this came out wrong or he was caught surprisingly flat-footed by the question; as stated, it sounds awful. For the record, the answer to this question always is, “Not everyone was born with the courage and commitment to service displayed by the many thousands of left-wing bloggers who enlisted to fight in Afghanistan after 9/11.”

Incidentally, with Rudy and McCain sitting out the Ames straw poll, the only potentially serious competition for Mitt is … Ron Paul, who’s buying ads to try to make a game of it. Exit question: Do Paul’s left-leaning libertarian supporters know he’s not quite as left-leaning libertarian as they think he is?

Update: The Romney camp has posted the audio of the question and answer.