MONTREAT, NC -- Mitt Romney made a detour en route to an evening rally in Asheville tonight to pay a visit to the mountaintop home of famed evangelist Bill Graham, where he chatted and prayed with the reverend and his son Franklin for roughly half an hour.
Reporters were allowed to view only a portion of the meeting, during which Romney told the Grahams about his father's death at age 88, and responded to a question by Rev. Billy Graham by telling him, "Prayer is the most helpful thing you can do for me."
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Graham, who has been a counselor to presidents reaching back to Dwight Eisenhower, did not respond to a question from a reporter as to whether he was endorsing Romney, but Romney adviser Mark DeMoss, who sat in on the meeting, later quoted Graham as having told Romney: "I'll do all I can to help you."
Romney's meeting with the evangelical leaders came during a week in which the former Massachusetts governor has displayed a more moderate tone on the stump, and in which he raised doubts about his pro life bonafides after telling the Des Moines Register on Tuesday there was "no legislation with regards to abortion" that would become part of his agenda.
On Wednesday at a campaign stop in Ohio, Romney clarified his position.
"I think I've said time and again. I'm a pro-life candidate. I'll be a pro-life president," Romney told reporters in Delaware, Ohio. "The actions I'll take immediately are to remove funding for Planned Parenthood. It will not be part of my budget. And also I've indicated I'll reverse the Mexico City position of the president. I will reinstate the Mexico City policy."
DeMoss's readout of Romney's meeting with the Grahams did not mention any discussion of abortion rights issues, but was instead largely biographical, concluding with the senior Graham leading a prayer for the Romneys.
Tonight, Romney's evangelical outreach continues in this lone, culturally southern swing state: former Baptist minister, Arkansas governor and evangelical favorite Mike Huckabee is scheduled to introduce Romney at his rally in Asheville.
