Get to Know the Hopefuls: Mitt Romney

Can a man named "Willard" win the White House?

Although he has yet to formally announce his bid for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, the outgoing Massachusetts governor, whose previous claim to fame was taking over the scandal-plagued 2002 Olympics, is checking out real estate for campaign headquarters, courting his fellow GOP governors, and discovering, on the Commonwealth's dime, that Asia is "an important region of the world."

Meanwhile, he's already in hot water for pleading plausible deniability on (subcontracted) illegal alien employees and a certain, ahem, opportunism with respect to gay rights. He's also just slashed $425 million from state social programs, mostly those that help the elderly and disabled, to build cred among less-than-compassionate conservatives. And, he's mum on whether he wears the traditional Mormon "temple garments", made popular by their appearance in Tony Kushner's Angels in America .