Mitt Romney meets with Rev. Billy Graham

MONTREAT, N.C. (AP) - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney met Thursday with Rev. Billy Graham, and the aging evangelist pledged to do "all I can" to help the GOP nominee win the presidency.
 
Romney went to see Graham and his son, the Rev. Franklin Graham, at the elderly evangelist's mountaintop home in the mountains of western North Carolina.
 
"Prayer is the most helpful thing you can do for me," Romney told the 93-year-old Graham.
The meeting came just days after Romney told a newspaper he would not pursue abortion-related legislation as president. Romney later insisted that he would be a "pro-life president."


The Republican candidate said Thursday that Franklin Graham, also an evangelical leader, had been helping his presidential bid.

"What you're planning, what your son has shown me, is going to be very, very helpful. And I appreciate that. It's going to be terrific," Romney said near the end of their 30-minute meeting. A handful of photographers and a camera crew witnessed the exchange, though no print reporters were allowed to see any part of the meeting.

Romney adviser Mark De Moss later said Romney and Franklin Graham had been discussing how the younger Graham is doing everything he can "to encourage churches to encourage their people to get out and vote."

The Republican nominee has faced some difficulty making inroads with evangelical voters, in part because some believe his Mormon faith means he is not a Christian. Earlier this year, the younger Graham expressed support for primary rival Rick Santorum, a Catholic. Pressed during an interview on MSNBC, Graham would not say that Romney was a Christian.

"He is a Mormon," Franklin Graham said in February. "Most Christians would not recognize Mormonism ... but he would be a good president if he won the nomination."

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