Ted Turner: Romney Would 'Probably Make a Good President'

CNN founder Ted Turner said something Thursday night guaranteed to raise a couple of eyebrows especially at the White House.

Appearing on Piers Morgan Tonight, without going so far as endorsing Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, the liberal billionaire said, "I think that he'd probably make a good president" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

PIERS MORGAN, HOST: Let's talk politics briefly, Ted. The election's coming up in November. Mitt Romney is the likely Republican nominee for all intents and purposes. Who's going to win, do you think?

TED TURNER: I don't know. When I started CNN, I made the decision to stay out of endorsing candidates, and let the viewers make up their own minds about politics, that it wasn't going to come from me. The other networks were all telling everybody what to do. But I wanted to be different and let people make up their own minds.

So I didn't -- I would talk about candidates. And I can say about Mitt Romney I think he's a real gentleman. I think he's been very successful. I think he's really smart. I don't agree with everything that he believes, but I agree with a lot of it. And I think that he'd probably make a good president.

MORGAN: Are you more --

TURNER: But I'm not endorsing him.

Imagine that.