(Image source: The New York Times)

WRITTEN BY CHRISTINA HARTMAN

You're watching multisource politics video news analysis from Newsy.

Fried twinkies -- literal soapboxes -- and hecklers.

GOP presidential candidates are in Iowa ahead of the state’s politically important straw poll.

But no Midwest nice for frontrunner Mitt Romney. C-SPAN has that video.

MITT ROMNEY: “Do I believe that Social Security should take no part in deficit reduction negotiations?” ... “Social security, Medicare, and Medicaid account for about half of federal spending. (That’s a lie!)” ... “Corporations are people, my friend. Of course they are. Everything corporations earn ultimately goes to people. (LAUGHTER)”

Romney told the crowd if they didn’t like his answer, they could vote for someone else. As CNN’s Shannon Travis suggests -- the incident isn’t likely to bode well for the former Massachusetts governor.

REPORTER: “In fairness, Brooke, the person who heckled, who asked that question of Mitt Romney, is a liberal activist. He’s done this to other Republican politicians before. But the fact that Mitt Romney would answer that way and defend corporations against higher taxes is creating a lot of buzz, especially among his Democratic critics.”

Conservative blogger Tina Korbe predicts the “corporations are people” line will soon end up in a Democratic attack ad. But she argues -- Romney handled himself well against the attackers -- who she suggests are misinformed.

“At least the questioners are concerned about Social Security reform. But rather than suggest the tired solution of forcing some to explicitly pay more than they’ll even have hope of receiving in benefits, they might want to consider other potential solutions, like, oh, say, raising the retirement age...”

The Democratic National Committee has already seized on the event -- with chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz calling it “shocking.” Salon’s Justin Elliot observes...

“The line unintentionally evokes the continuing debate over ‘corporate personhood’ and the increasing number of constitutional rights afforded to corporations. But don't expect a substantive discussion of that weighty issue.”

 

Transcript by Newsy.