Mitt Romney entered the Register Wednesday in a whirlwind of people, including a camera crew film... Romney, at ease in spotlig

Mitt Romney entered the Register Wednesday in a whirlwind of people, including a camera crew filming him as he walked through the newsroom. National magazines and "60 Minutes" recorded his path to the meeting with the Register's editorial board. Then the Republican presidential candidate sat down with Register editors and writers to talk about education, Iraq, health care and taxes, among other issues.

Romney's dark hair, graying sideburns and intense eyes give him the look of a seasoned politician. But he's relatively new to politics. Before one term as governor of Massachusetts, he spent his entire life in the private sector, including doing consulting work and founding a venture capital and investment firm.

He's plenty seasoned, though, at being in the glare of the media spotlight. His father was George Romney, auto executive, governor of Michigan and a presidential candidate, too. The eyes of the world fell on the son when Mitt Romney took the helm of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Winter Olympics. His book "Turnaround" details his efforts to rescue the Games from financial crisis and stage a safe gathering of the world community after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Or perhaps encounters with Boston media have steeled him for any question, in any situation. It was hot and stuffy in the meeting room, but he fielded questions easily, never breaking a sweat.

His private-sector orientation threads through his views, such as his preference for "market solutions" when it comes to tackling health care, one of this country's biggest domestic challenges.

In Massachusetts, Romney spearheaded implementation of a so-called individual mandate, which requires people to purchase health insurance or face financial penalties. He said that model "will work for the nation," as could initiatives under way in other states. He also advocates health savings accounts, transparency in pricing and "bringing market dynamics" to health care.

However, Romney wasn't fond of expanding government health-care programs as some states have done. In fact, he referred to Medicaid, the government-funded health-care program for the poor, as "a lousy insurance product."

He talked at length about Iraq and global relationships. "We need to put in place a strategy to defeat the jihadists," a radical, violent faction of Islam. The United States must provide support to help modernize moderate Muslim nations, he said, plus strengthen our military to discourage the possibility of attacks.

He said education is largely the responsibility of local governments and talked about shoring up Social Security through private accounts. But he said he absolutely did not support raising taxes.

His message of bringing fiscal discipline back to Washington includes a pledge to cap non-defense discretionary spending at inflation minus 1 percent. He also said he would veto any budget that exceeds that amount.

"Washington is broken. Americans know it. And the reason I am running is to fix Washington and to get America on track so that we can defeat the jihadists, we can be competitive with Asia, we can fix our schools, we can get health care for all our citizens that's private, market-based health care, we can solve our immigration problems."

But he may have a chance to do so. Romney has reported raising $23 million for his campaign during the first three months of this year. That makes him the fundraising leader among Republican presidential candidates.

This is cache, read story here