Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney spent Father’s Day in Iowa, stressing a "family values" theme. "You know it’s helpful, when kids are raised, if they start off with a mom and a dad," Romney said.
During a speech in Muscatine, Romney repeated a story he’s been telling on the campaign trail to drive home his point that America’s culture needs to change.
"My deputy chief of staff…his wife was pregnant, they were getting ready to have a baby shower and he decided to register her at the local ‘Babies R Us’ and he went into the store and the clerk said ‘O.K., what’s your name?’ — filling out the paper for the registration — ‘Peter Flaherty.’
"And then she said: ‘All right, what’s your girlfriend’s name?’" Romney said, as many in the Muscatine audience gasped.
"Yea. And he said: ‘I don’t have a girlfriend’ and (the clerk) said: ‘Well, who’s having the baby then?’ and he said: ‘My wife.’"
Romney called a two-parent household a "blessing" for not only the children but the parents, too.
"We need to once again in this country help our kids understand that you finish high school and get your education and you fall in love, then you get married and then you have babies and there’s a huge benefit to having a mom and a dad help raise a child so they can support ’em in school and they can help them with their homework and they can talk about discipline and when one parent has had it, the other parent can step in," Romney said, to a few laughs. "That happened a couple of times with us with those five boys. It came to a point when now or then one or the other of us would just sort of say: ‘Would you take over here? I’ve just had it.’"
Romney had campaign stops Sunday in Burlington and Wapello, then he spoke to about 200 people gathered in "The Rendezvous" restaurant in Muscatine. "The most important work that goes on in America today is the work that goes on within the four walls of the American home and I want to say thanks for the dads here today," Romney said.
Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards wrapped up a three-day campaign swing through Iowa on Sunday, with his wife and children campaigning with him on Father’s Day.