Romney grilled on flip flops

Mitt Romney, wife Ann, flip chops in the Iowa Pork Producers tent at the Iowa State Fair on the eve of the Iowa Straw Poll. (AP Photo by Charlie Neibergall)

By Rick Pearson and John McCormick

DES MOINES — Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has come under fire from conservative critics for being a flip-flopper, but the Republican presidential contender proved one thing today: When it comes to pork chops, his flipping is a flop.

Romney and his wife, Ann, were the "guest chefs" of the Iowa Pork Producers at the Iowa State Fair. Each was handed a large spatula and given the honors to flip dozens of thick grilling pork chops and hoist them into a serving pan.

"Just what we need is a little heat right now to warm you up," Romney joked to one of the workers as he stood over the hot grill on a day already hot and humid.

Romney was answering a question about his favorite foods as he performed for the ritual photo opportunity—"I'm afraid to tell you I love hot dogs and hamburgers,"—when he proceeded to flip a pork chop into the gravel beneath the barbecue grill.

When they call the Iowa Straw Poll a media event, this is what they mean. Reporters come from all over to see guys like Mitt Romney flip pork chops. That's our friend Adam Smith of the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times in the center with the pink polo shirt and look of awe. Our very own John McCormick of the Tribune took this picture, and he and our Rick Pearson wrote it all up.

"There goes one," he said as he stooped down to retrieve it.

"Leave it. Leave it," a grill worker told the candidate.

"No," Romney said, "there's a five-second rule."

"I don't care," the grill worker said as Romney reached down into the gravel, picked up the fallen pork chop and placed it back on the grill.

"Don't throw 'em away," Romney said as a worker snatched the now gravel-crusted pork chop off the grill.

Given the questions that Romney has faced on his conversion to a conservative on social issues, a reporter asked him if he thought it was wise to be seen in the act of flipping?

"It's part of the process, part of the fun to be at the Iowa State Fair and flipping pork chops," Romney said.

Romney also tried to flip a chop into the air and catch it on the spatula, but failed.

"It's not like a pancake, huh?" he told one of the workers.

Romney, the frontrunner in early polling in Iowa, acknowledged his photo-op was aimed at helping drive turnout in tomorrow's straw poll in Ames.

"Of course, this is an effort to get our friends and supporters out and hopefully they'll be watching TV tonight and remember that Ames is tomorrow and we'll get some folks there," he said.