It's usually golfers and baseball players who get the "yips" -- an unexplained loss of motor skills, when a player suddenly starts fumbling even basic tasks. In sports, it could be a routine chip to the green, or an infield throw first base. In politics, it could be bungling a straightforward question, such as the issue of interracial marriage.
At a Green Bay rally yesterday, Romney angrily cut off a questioner who broached the subject of religion. Romney was asked about a controversial passage in the Book of Mormon, which talks about cursing people with a "skin of blackness." Romney interrupted the questioner and declared "we're just not going to have a discussion about religion in my view." The questioner persisted, asking if Romney thought it was a sin for interracial couples to have children, to which an exasperated Romney said "no," followed quickly by "next question." Watch the exchange below.
In Politico's new e-book Inside the Circus, Mike Allen and Evan Thomas talk about Romney becoming "gun shy." In one anecdote, Romney was talking with an adviser when he "pointed to a sound boom some distance away and said, 'Careful.'" Now on the verge of capturing the nomination, is Mitt Romney just getting some jitters? Or is he coming down with a debilitating case of the yips?