WEST PALM BEACH — After speaking to a packed Forum Club of the Palm Beaches lunch here today, once and possibly future Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney deflected questions about a 2012 White House run (he says he’ll think about his future after the November midterm elections) and punted on the Charlie Crist-Marco Rubio GOP Senate primary (“Usually I stay out of primaries”).

But Romney, in a brief sit-down with The Palm Beach Post, was a little more expansive in discussing his altercation last month with electro-hop artist Sky Blu on a plane waiting to take off from Vancouver.

Sky Blu, a.k.a. Skyler Gordy, is a relative of Motown founder Berry Gordy. He was kicked off an Air Canada flight after a dispute in which Romney asked him to put his seat in the upright position for takeoff.

Exactly how Romney asked, and how Gordy responded, is a matter of dispute.

Gordy, half of the Grammy-nominated duo LMFAO, released a video statement saying the 62-year-old politician put a “condor grip” on his shoulder and his fellow LMFAO member calls it a “Vulcan grip” in a reference to Leonard Nimoy’s Spock character on the original Star Trek TV series.

“I think that’s more of a mind projection,” Romney said of the Vulcan grip accusation. “But I grant Sky Blu poetic license.”

Romney added: “I would be proud to think I have that kind of capacity in my fingertips.”

It was not immediately clear if Romney was escalating the battle of 1960s pop culture allusions by making a reference to early Motown hitmaker Stevie Wonder’s 1963 single Fingertips.

Romney said he had “no hard feelings” toward Sky Blu/Gordy.

Tags: 2012 campaigns, Berry Gordy, Leonard Nimoy, Mitt Romney, Sky Blu, Skyler Gordy, Star Trek, Vulcan grip

This entry was posted on Monday, March 8th, 2010 at 7:22 pm and is filed under Charlie Crist, George Bennett, Marco Rubio. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.