Parade recently posted a heartfelt interview with Mitt Romney here.  Its worth reading all 6 pages.  The American citizenry would be well-served to elect a man with the kind of integrity, family values, and leadership experience in helping and serving among the less fortunate that Mitt Romney has embodied.

Here are some key excerpt from Mitt’s responses to questions from the interviewer, but I recommend reading the article in full:

First, the interviewer says:

Photo credit: Parade 2011

“I conversed with the loving family man who proudly showed me photos of himself sledding with grandsons and who lit up when his wife, Ann, walked into the room…

And here are some comments from Mitt Romney in the interview:

“My dad was a carpenter who never completed college, yet he went on to be CEO of American Motors and governor of Michigan. At home, he filled us with the conviction that life was not handed to us on a silver platter. He made sure my brother and I mowed the lawn, shoveled the driveway. When he ran for president and his tax returns were published, it was clear he could’ve hired a landscaper. But he decided we would learn to work with our hands…

“I thought I’d be a business guy. I had dreamed of being involved in the automobile industry because I loved cars and I grew up in Detroit. My hope was that I could become an executive at one of the car companies. Had I thought politics was in my future, I probably would have picked Michigan, not Massachusetts as the place to live. [laughs]…

“I was sent to live in France among the lower middle class. Each month I received $100 or $110 from home, probably equal to $500 or $600 a month today. With it, I had to pay for everything—rent, food, transportation. The toilet was in the hall, shared by a few apartments, and the shower consisted of attaching a hose to the sink faucet, standing in a plastic tub, and holding the hose over your head….I recognized my life was up to me, and what I became was a function not of what my father achieved or what my mother dreamt, but what I could accomplish on my own…

“Growing up in a Judeo-Christian religious foundation, one measures one’s life by the contributions one has made to God and to the children of God. As the fragility of life becomes more clear in one’s mind, the need and passion to help others becomes more of a daily motivation…

“I read the Bible. I read it with much more interest and attention, and that made me, I think, more fundamentally appreciative of the truths and wisdom that had been provided by our Creator…

“She [Ann] is the most wonderful woman I’ve ever known, an extraordinary mother, and a very caring person. People immediately identify her connection to and passion for others. She would be one of the great First Ladies…

Q: If you could use one word to describe yourself, what would it be?
A: “Devoted. Devoted to my family, my faith, and my country.”

Then the interview moved on to topics of his lifestyle, religion, and other values:

“My view is that the commandments of God—let’s take the Ten Commandments, the basis of all Judeo-Christian faiths—are not so much restricting as liberating. I think being faithful to one’s spouse is a wonderful source of passion and devotion in marriage and that paying tithes as suggested in the Book of Malachi makes one’s money less important…I’ve given away 10 percent of what I’ve earned, pretax…

“I had the occasion, as you know, to serve my church in a foreign place and to live with people who lived extraordinarily modestly. I’ve also served as a lay pastor in my church and counseled people with very modest means and provided welfare funds from the church to them. I’ve had the experience of watching people under very intense personal stress—financial, unemployment, family, and marital. Those heartbreaking experiences are what give me such conviction that we have to turn this country around economically and restore the prosperity which has always characterized the middle class in America…

Q: How would you describe your core? What are your passions?
A:  ”I love this country. I love the principles upon which this nation was founded. I have a deep affection for the American people. And I was raised with a conviction that I have a responsibility as an American citizen to help the country and to help my fellow citizens.

Q: How would you break the partisan gridlock in D.C.?
A:  ”By finding people who care more about the country than anything else. And I would intend not to attack the people across the aisle. When I was governor of Massachusetts, with a legislature that was 85 percent Democrat, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that if I attacked the House or Senate leaders, I’d get nothing done. I worked with the Speaker and the Senate President. We met every week in one of our three offices for an hour or two, discussed problems that the state faced, and did so off the record.”

This is exactly the kind of down-to-earth personality and leadership the people of Michigan and the rest of the country are looking for from our nation’s President.  Unwavering devotion to family, faith and country, proven over the span of his lifetime.  We find in Mitt no flipping or recent conversion to these most important foundational values that comprise the core of a moral leader.

The question is, is such unwavering devotion to these values important to republican voters?

Who gets nominated may be very telling.