Those of you that know me know that I am not a fan of Mitt Romney. I don’t want to rehash the most recent Iowa Caucus, but my dislike of Romney stems from some of his actions as Governor of Massachusetts. But that is neither here nor there. Yesterday morning Romney was interviewed by Harry Smith on CBS’ The Early Show. But after viewing the interview that CBS did not get what it wanted. Clearly the network wanted an interview where the response was nothing but praise for President Obama and his policies. Instead what they got was an individual that was highly critical of the president. The following is a transcript from the opening exchanges of that interview.

SMITH:  Joining us now from Salt Lake City for an exclusive interview is former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.

Good morning, sir.

ROMNEY:  Good morning, Harry.

SMITH:  We've heard much stronger language from President Obama yesterday.  Beyond language, though, is there anything, really anything, this administration can do beyond just condemning the behavior of the regime?

ROMNEY:  Well, I'm glad the president finally did rise to the occasion here.  It was not exactly a Ronald Reagan, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" moment.

SMITH:  All right, very different circumstances that have been trotted out by Republicans for the last five or six days now.  That was a crumbling regime in its last legs.  Let's talk about this in realistic terms.

ROMNEY:  Well, in realistic terms, the president should have spoken from the very beginning, expressing the fact that we will always stand with forces of freedom throughout the world and that we will oppose tyranny.

That being said, I'm very pleased that the president did finally do just about that.  He broadcast his remarks into the Iranian world through -- in Farsi.  So he is getting that message out.  And it's very different to speak truth than to meddle in their affairs.  And I'm glad the president has made that move.

And at the same time, I think we should be asking other voices in the Middle East to have similar comments to make sure that people understand that this is not a legitimate regime, that it's a sham democracy.

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Like I said above, I am no fan of Mitt Romney, but I have to give the guy credit. He hit the nail on the head in his first response. I am glad that Obama finally decided to show his support of the Iranian protestors, but it could have been so much more. He had an opportunity to inspire millions around the world to throw off the shackles of tyranny in much the same fashion that Ronald Reagan did in his famous “tear down this wall” speech from Berlin. When compared with that great leader Obama’s response seems lukewarm at best.

Host Harry Smith seemed to have a different opinion. In the video Smith is clearly surprised that Romney is not falling all over himself with praise for the President. Smith even goes so far as to interrupt Romney’s response by asserting that the circumstances were very different. Smith’s lack of observation skills really surprised me. The Soviet Union was in a downward spiral and so is the Iranian regime. The difference is that the Iranian regime is unafraid to use violence to put down the protesters.

As I stated above, I am no fan of Mitt Romney, but I have to thank him for standing up for freedom. As for Harry Smith, until he can regain his objectivity he has lost my respect.