MARK WAITE / PVT Ann Romney, standing third from left, poses for pictures with admirers in Pahrump Friday. Advertisement

Family values will be an important issue in the 2008 presidential campaign, Ann Romney, wife of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, said during a stopover in Pahrump Friday.

While some Republican candidates have distanced themselves from the Bush administration, Romney boasted of her husband's speech on his Mormon faith at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Texas Thursday.

Mrs. Romney described it as "extraordinary" and "fabulous" during a talk with supporters at the Pahrump home of Darlene Howard.

A couple of supporters made the comparison between electing a Mormon as president today to the unfounded worries over electing John F. Kennedy, a Catholic, as president in 1960.

"George Bush Sr., the ex-president, was a very good friend of Mitt's father, George Romney," Ms. Romney said. "So we had that relationship for a long time and we've had the privilege several times of being guests of the Bushes in Kennebunkport, Maine."

"We had the opportunity to have a prayer privately with the Bushes before we went out," she said. "My 12-year-old granddaughter was with us for that so that would be I'm sure, an experience that she'll write in her journal and will be remembered for the rest of her life."

Mrs. Romney said Barbara Bush gave a running commentary applauding Mitt Romney's speech while sitting next to her.

Ann Romney's visit in Pahrump was tightly controlled by her deputy press secretary. There would be no press conference, only one question would be allowed from each reporter and Ann Romney wouldn't be discussing her husband's policies.

Ms. Romney remarked during coverage for the New Hampshire primary the New York Times reporters would "blitz in and they blitz out."

"I think you get very biased by the reports in the paper," she said.

When asked by a reporter if the appearance at the Bush Library constituted an endorsement by George Bush Sr. of her husband's candidacy, Ann Romney said the ex-president invited all candidates to speak at his presidential library, using it as a public forum.

"He never did give a public endorsement, he gave a personal endorsement of our family," Ms. Romney said.

Instead of a lot of specifics, like Elizabeth Kucinich gave last week in Pahrump, the wife of Democratic candidate U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Ms. Romney dealt with general accomplishments of her husband.

"As you know, Massachusetts is a very Democratic state," said Mrs. Romney "There are 13 percent registered Republicans. The state as you might know, is basically a Catholic state too. Most of the people that live in Massachusetts are Catholic.

"So what would be the odds of Mitt running as a Republican against an Irish Catholic, Democratic woman? I wouldn't give it much of a chance but he won and he won quite solidly," Mrs. Romney said.