Christie Todd Whitman: When will Romney stand up to his base?

I have seen some moments where I thought he had a freebie to do that. And he didn’t. Well, the one that comes to mind the first and is really etched in my memory is the debate that was sponsored by the Tea Party when a young soldier serving our country overseas — I can’t remember whether it was in Afghanistan or Iraq — was on the video asking a question. He was gay. And the audience booed.

And I waited for one of those candidates to stand up and say, “Look, you may not agree with his lifestyle, but this fellow is over there in uniform fighting to protect your life. So give him some respect.”