CHARLESTON, S.C., Oct. 10, 2007
Mitt Romney: A Changed Man
Washington Post: GOP Candidate's Ideological Turnabout Has Critics Wondering: Who Is This Guy?
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Republican presidential hopeful former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, second from right, gather with his family Craig, left, Josh, Matt, right, and his wife Ann after the GOP debate at Ford Community and Performing Arts Center Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2007, in Dearborn, Mich. (AP)
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Schieffer On GOP Debate
Harry Smith speaks with chief Washington correspondent and host of "Face The Nation" Bob Schieffer about Fred Thompson's appearance and performance at the GOP debate in Dearborn, Mich.
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Mitt Vs. Rudy: Taxes, Spending
"CBS News RAW": In the first GOP debate devoted to the economy, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani debate their different approach to taxes and spending, especially the line-item veto.
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GOP Frontrunners On Unions
"CBS News RAW": Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani share their attitudes about labor unions in the first GOP debate devoted to the economy.
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2008 Presidential Hopefuls
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But by 2004, Romney was one of the country's most vocal critics of gay marriage, and in 2005 he backed a state constitutional amendment that would ban not just gay marriage but civil unions, too. (The governor said at the time that he had supported civil unions in the past because gay marriage seemed like the only alternative; in his ideal world, he told the media, there would be no civil unions either.) The following year, he took his gay-marriage opposition on the road, pushing for a similar constitutional amendment in South Carolina, pledging $5,000 through his political action committee and promising to show up and campaign on the amendment's behalf.
By then, some Log Cabin Republicans were saying they'd been snookered.
"He shakes your hand, looks you in the eye," says Richard Babson, a Log Cabin member who attended the Romney meeting. "It's hard for me to know what Mitt Romney's first principles are on a given day."
Last week, the Log Cabin Republicans went public with their anger, running a TV ad that lambastes Romney by including video clips of his pro-choice, pro-gun-control stands as a candidate in Massachusetts.
If the gay-rights crowd sounds bitterly disappointed, the state's environmentalists sound like they'd gotten punk'd. By the end of his term, Romney had announced his support for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He'd supported an easing of regulations on power-plant cleanup, including Salem Harbor, the site of that confrontation. And he'd pulled out of a historic seven-state agreement designed to reduce greenhouse gases, an effort he'd initially championed.
"Hearts were broken," says Seth Kaplan of the Conservation Law Foundation. "That's the best way I can put it. And when someone is an unexpected advocate, like Romney was, it builds up your hopes and breaks your heart even more."
Most trace the turning point to the elections of 2004, when Romney backed a slate of Republican candidates, hoping to loosen the Democratic hold on the state legislature. When the GOP gained not a single seat, he seemed to abandon interest in a second term and set his sights on a run for the presidency.
That's not to say he gave up on the governor's job; in 2006, for example, he signed into law an ambitious health insurance bill that mandated coverage for all Massachusetts residents by July of this year. But he began traveling regularly outside the state for campaign-like, get-to-know-me appearances, more than 100 trips in 2005 and 2006, the Boston Globe reported. He stopped selling Massachusetts and started to make it the butt of jokes, telling out-of-state audiences that his job made him feel like "a cattle rancher at a vegetarian convention."
Even some members of the business community were let down.
"Everyone knew that rebuilding the economy here would be 40 miles of hard road, and Mitt bailed out after five miles," says Howard Anderson, a professor of business at MIT and a longtime investor in Bain Capital who has known Romney for years. "At some point, we in the venture capital community became skeptics, and that eventually turned into rampant cynicism."
Anderson has nothing but praise for Romney's performance as Bain CEO, describing him as a smart, consensus-building leader with terrific judgment, a man of integrity who was exceptionally generous to partners. Squaring Romney the executive with Romney the politician is something Anderson has never been able to do.
"It's as though he's let the market dictate his ideology, which is something no one who knew him in the private sector ever saw coming. Not a hint."
The Real Romney?
Romney's supporters acknowledge that he moved to the right during his years as governor, but they think the distance he traveled is no further than that of other great politicians. (Reagan, once a Democrat, is mentioned often.) They stress his competence, intelligence and leadership skills as well as his talent as a fiscal manager. His campaign says that when he took office, Massachusetts faced a deficit of $3 billion and when he left, it had a surplus.
"The people of Massachusetts will remember Mitt Romney as a person who came into office during a financial emergency, balanced the budget without raising taxes and found a way to get health insurance to all our citizens without a government takeover," writes Fehrnstrom, still Romney's spokesman, in an e-mail.
Whether Romney's rapid journey rightward will matter in the election isn't clear. In the town of Aiken (town motto: "Character counts"), what you hear is a lot of skepticism about Mormonism, still Romney's most problematic sale. And many who say that a person who came late to the anti-abortion camp can't be trusted to stay there.
"If he changed his mind once, he could change it again," says Gene Hawkins, a private investigator, who was visiting a gun store during his lunch break. "If he's indecisive about that, what else might he be indecisive about?"
Among those who came to Romney's event, few seemed bothered by the idea that he'd run for his only other job in public office as a very different candidate. In a state so dominated by Democrats, how else was he supposed to win? And perhaps his willingness to rethink his stands, these people said, is evidence of a comforting kind of honesty.
"It takes a real man to admit he's wrong, but he's changed his mind and he tells you why," says Skipper Perry, Aiken's local representative to the state legislature. "I don't look at it as flip-flopping so much as soul-searching."
What liberal activists from the home state remember, however, is a governor who presented a thoroughly convincing persona in 2002 and effectively abandoned it two years later. Which is the real Romney, they ask?
Some think he was feigning his moderation then and is revealing his true self now. But it's a safe bet that Romney would have passed a lie detector test in both incarnations. And that speaks to his consummate skills as a salesman, the best of whom believe so deeply in their product that they internalize its merits -- which is why they never sound like they're selling.
© 2007 The Washington Post Company
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See all 68 CommentsAnyone who has seen him debate realize he is an empty suit with a tape recorded of talking points for a head. He is not qualified to be much more than a manager of a suburban Radio Shack.
The next US president will and must be a moderate. We''ve had eight years of an empty-headed moron forcing his socially conservative ideology down our throats. We don''t need any more, thank you any way Mr. Romney.
The same paper that endoreses one Democrat after another every election.
The same paper that has a bastion of liberal Democrats as employees.
The same corrupt paper that "cooked" their polls on President Bush this summer by not adjusting for "too many Dems in their sample survey".
The same Washington Post that says Democrats care about poor people yet less than 50% of the children in DC''s public schools ever graduate from High School.
Bottom line is this America''s corrupt liberal MSM wolfpack press is doing everything they can to "derail" Mitt Romney from getting the GOP nomination.
Because they are scare of Mitt and know that he''s the only GOP candidate that can beat their hero Hillary Rotten-Clinton in 2008.
All Americans should watch as these dirty corrupt political hack/reporters go after another American in order to prop up their Party, the Democrats.
Just the facts folks.........watch for yourself.
Posted by ekucrew
Hmmm. NO mention of Hillary''s military service either, now. Stupid criteria to judge by but then again stupid is as stupid says.
Mitt is all ambition and no substance. He will do anything to become President. Including flip-flopping on any political issue that he feels he must in order to get conservative wackos to support him.
Wrong... Fred is still being looked at and might fade a little as the campaign continues.
It%u2019s true as far as it goes - which isn%u2019t very far. Almost all those vetoes were overridden by the Legislature and became law. Which makes Mitt not a St. George slaying big-bucks dragons, but an overmatched Mr. Futile.
%u201CHe%u2019d veto a lot of bills just for show,%u201D said Richard Tisei (R-Lynnfield), the Senate minority leader, who is supporting Rudy Giuliani for president. %u201CProbably 90 percent were overidden. He never tried to solicit support to sustain them; never talked to our legislative leadership or the Republican rank and file.%u201D
If Romney had really cared, he could have gathered the GOP%u2019s waning members in one big conference room and at least fought to uphold some of his vetoes. But, Tisei said, %u201CI can%u2019t remember one time he asked for our support.%u201D
Which may explain why Romney suffered so many embarrassing shutouts when not a single legislator in one (often both) of the chambers backed him. The House journal%u2019s report last year on 286 appropriations vetoes between July 19 and July 31 shows Romney%u2019s utter lack of influence.
All 286 line item vetoes were rejected, most of them by overwhelming margins from both parties. He was overridden unanimously 99 times, getting a goose egg from both House and Senate 32 times, blanked by the Senate another 42 times and shut out by the House 25 times.
And he managed to avoid the troubles of the Vietnam was when his daddy, a Mormon big cheese, also certified him as a "preacher man" because he was handing out the usual Mormon tracts door to door. Not exactly like an ordained minister, but Mitt slipped out of being drafted and sent to Vietnam!
The Lie: %u201CI want to make it very clear that I%u2019m not going to raise taxes. As governor of Massachusetts, I made it very clear there, and I did not raise taxes.%u201D. Source: South Carolina Republican Debate, May 15, 2007.
The Flip: Romney raised fees by $400 million during his first year as governor. Source: ABC News.
The Lie:
Mitt Romney supported the Brady Bill, which instituted a five-day waiting period before you could buy a handgun, and a ban on assault weapons. He said %u201CThat%u2019s not going to make me the hero of the NRA. I don%u2019t line up with the NRA.%u201D Source: Boston Globe.
The Flip: %u201C[I joined the NRA] within the last year and I signed up for a lifelong membership. I think they%u2019re doing good things and I believe in supporting the right to bear arms.%u201D Source: ABC News.
To whom do I refer?
a) Mitt Romney
b) Rudy Giuliani
c) Fred Thompson
d) All of the above
10 points for each correct answer!
You do and say whatever they want you to do and say to get elected.
Then the question is: "Now what do I do?"
I can''t wait to see who the right wing nutjob compassionate conservative christian neocons give us next.
Mitt is the most viable moderate conservative in the Presidential race and the best qualified to bring new leadership with his vision for America%u2019s future.
Gov. Romney has an impressive resume to showcase. When elected governor in 2002 he assumed a monstrous 3 billion dollar deficit and put the state of Massachusetts back in the black without raising taxes. In 2006 Mitt signed into law a bill that provided HEALTH INSURANCE to all the citizens of Massachusetts without raising taxes......wow!
His success in public office mirrors his record in the private sector at Bain Capitol where he reorganized and made household names of companies such as Domino%u2019s Pizza and Staples.
He also bailed out the U.S. Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2002, and turned a profit there for 100 million dollars. I have nicknamed Mitt, "the Rominator", for obvious reasons.
Romney has also taken a tough stance on terrorism. Mitt wants to expedite the turn over of security in Iraq and in a June interview with the Associated Press Mitt indicated that he was against permanent US bases in Iraq.
Mitt''''s the only top tier presidential candidate who strongly opposed the flawed Senate immigration bill( aka "No alien left behind") architected by Senators McCain and Kennedy.
You said "These crooks have the same ethical values as a Salamander." I demand you take back that statement, as it is an insult to Samamanders and other amphibians!
Society for prevention of cruelty to Amphibians,
Sal A. Manders, President
So, Mitt is a member of a radical, non-Christian*, religion that is bent on taking over the government of the United States of America. He will say and do whatever is necessary to accomplish that goal. I think that qualifies nicely as an "Overarching Theory of Mitt", don''t you? It also qualifies as a VERY good reason not to vote for him. But go ahead and vote for Mitt if you like. I don''t mind. It will just make it that much easier to defeat the republican nominee.
*non-Christian: They believe God was a man, that he had a wife, that the One God is named Elohim, that he had s3x with Mary (so she''s not the Virgin Mary!), that Elohim is the father of Jehovah (the Jewish and Christian God) and Satan and Jesus, etc., etc.
Mitt Romney vetoed the bill providing state funding for human embryonic stem cell research
He vetoed a bill that provided for the "morning after pill" without a prescription because it is an abortifacient and would have been available to minors without parental notification and consent
He vetoed legislation which would have redefined Massachusetts longstanding definition of the beginning of human life from fertilization to implantation
Governor Romney strongly supported a successful ballot initiative that replaced the state''s bilingual program with English immersion. (Romney Vows to Protect English Immersion Law, May 1, 2003)
Governor Romney demonstrated his commitment to school-choice by vetoing a bill that would have canceled funding for Massachusetts'' charter-school program. (Romney to Veto Charter School Moratorium, June 23, 2004)
He supported parental notification laws
The Church of Jesus Christ (LDS) is often misunderstood by Evangelical preachers . . Some accuse the Church of not believing in Christ and, therefore, not being a Christian religion . . http://mormonsarechristian.blogspot.com/ helps to clarify such misconceptions by examining early (First Century) Christianity''s theology relating to baptism, the Godhead, the deity of Jesus Christ and His Atonement.
The Church of Jesus Christ (LDS) adheres to Early Christian theology more closely than other Christian denominations. Perhaps the reason Evangelical preachers promote this mis-representation is to protect their flock (and their livlihood).
Another chickenshithawk who loves war but avoided personal risk at all costs. Is there no end to these tough guys with draft exemptions? So while 50,000 American soldiers were dying in Vietnam, he was peddling the Book of Mormon to French housewives?
And not a single one of his sons is in the military, yet he''s all for more military adventures--with other peoples'' sons.
,,,, In the 1850''s Christians chased them out of every state all the way to Utah & massacred families of them, You think what Saddam Hussein did was bad ?? LOL -- You are spinning history
The Truth: Massachusetts THREE governors prior to Romney were Republicans.
The Story: Saved Massacusetts without raising taxes.
The Truth:"Upon entering office, Romney faced a projected $3 billion deficit, but a previously enacted $1.3 billion capital gains tax increase and $500 million in unanticipated federal grants decreased the deficit to $1.2 billion.
Through a combination of tax and fee increases and spending cuts the State had a $700 million surplus by 2006. Romney supported raising various fees by $500 million per year, including raising fees for driver''s licenses, marriage licenses, and gun licenses.Romney increased the state gasoline tax by 2 cents per gallon, generating about $60 million per year in additional tax revenue.Romney approved another $181 million in additional business taxes in the next two years; businesses called these changes tax increases, but Romney defended them as the elimination of "loopholes.""
The federal government opened the faucet on the biggest pork boondoggle in American history during Romney''s term. The "Big Dig" left many states infrastructures crumbling while directing our tax dollars to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Isn''''t this the same joker that was stealing classified documents and then was caught on video camera pulling down his pants and sticking them under his underwear.
Probably disappointed that Craig - The Leg - or Tom Dee Leg was not around. I guess Hillary started Cackling when she heard about it.
Interesting - No Role for this Model & believe it or not - NO PAY either - hmmmmmm????
Maybe these Classified Documents will resurface as did the Travel Vouchures that Hillary conveniently lost for a time.
You libs are freaking stupid! Romney has more credentials than ALL the other candidates combined.
Spoken like a TRUE GOP USED CAR SALESMAN! Ever done business with a GOP Mormon or a Neocon? Both have the character of a used car salesman, tell ya anything that they think you want to hear to make the sale. My advise, never do business with a GOP Mormon or a neocon. These crooks have the same ethical values as a Salamander.
Now I was wondering shy he refuses to release his tax returns...
And also why does he say that the Scientolgy novel is his favorite book?
This is a link to the index of David Segal''s 251 stories in The Washington Post. As you can see, he is an entertainment writer. What would induce him to write, and the Post to print, this ill-researched puff piece on Romney?
Mitt Romney is one SICK COOKIE!
If the Democrats had leaked sensitive information to the press concerning Al-Qaeda, you''d have a serious problem with it and you know it. Are there Cons here willing to condemn the Bush Admin for leaking sensitive information to the fox news concerning Al-Qaeda?
The earth is actually 6,000 years old.
Romney not only accepted a $476,000 severance package according to federal tax records, but he helped to lobby the committee for similarly large amounts for his 25 senior managers, 17 of whom contributed to his 2002 Massachusetts gubernatorial campaign or the state Republican Party soon after the games ended!
But that''s what you get when you cross a lawyer with a business man, you get a liar who believes in his own lies enough to get up on a soap box and sell them to anyone who will listen.
Nice candidate Republicans, I guess you can''t expect much more from that party these days.
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