Another wintry storm Friday

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support


      WASHINGTON (AP) - Mitt Romney faced relentless criticism four
years ago for changing his positions on abortion and gay rights and
equivocating on other issues, including immigration and gun
control. This year, the former Massachusetts governor has largely
escaped such attacks as he competes again for the Republican
presidential nomination.


      Among his rivals, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Minnesota Rep.
Michele Bachmann have started to assail him for being wobbly on the
issues.


      "For some candidates, pro-life is an election-year slogan to
follow the prevailing political winds," Perry told social
conservatives recently. And Bachmann said: "You won't find YouTube
clips of me speaking in support of Roe versus Wade. You won't find
me equivocating or hemming or hawing when I'm asked to define
marriage as between one man and one woman."


      Neither mentioned Romney by name but the comments, three months
before primary voting begins, were obviously aimed at him. The
remarks signaled the likely start of a new phase in the GOP
nomination fight as his opponents look to derail the failed 2008
candidate, who sits atop national opinion polls and on a mound of
campaign cash while shoring up support among the party's
establishment.


      In this race, Romney has tightly tied his message to the
economy, arguing that his business background makes him the most
qualified Republican to challenge President Barack Obama next fall.
He's avoided the issues that tripped up his last campaign. And his
rivals have let him, at least until now. Their attempts to raise
such issues have been tepid and tentative.


      He seems prepared to take it harder on the chin if it comes to
that. He's already casting his shifts as the hallmark of a good
businessman.


      "In the private sector, if you don't change your view when the
facts change, well you'll get fired for being stubborn and
stupid," Romney said last month in New Hampshire. A week earlier,
he said Americans "can tell when people are being phony and are
pandering to an audience, and you'll see that in politics. You're
not going to see that in my campaign."


      In 2008, Romney ran to the right of the eventual nominee, Sen.
John McCain, casting himself as a rock-ribbed conservative on
cultural issues even though he had through the years reversed his
positions on such topics, priorities for religious Republicans who
make up an important part of the GOP base. His Mormon faith also
dogged him with evangelicals, many of whom do not believe that
Mormons are Christian.


      His 2008 opponents, who didn't hide their disdain for Romney,
largely kept their distance on the faith issue, but they didn't
hold back on his position shifts and successfully tagged him as a
flip-flopper. People wondered what, if anything, he stood for.


      "I have kept a consistent position on right to life and I
haven't changed my position on even-numbered years or have changed
because of the different offices that I may be running for,"
McCain said at one point during that race.


      Romney gave his rivals much fodder then by casting himself as
the conservative choice and staking out hardline positions on
cultural issues. That didn't square with the moderate views he
expressed in an unsuccessful 1994 Senate race and a victorious 2002
governor's race in liberal-leaning Massachusetts.


      During his Senate race against Edward M. Kennedy, Romney said
that regardless of his own personal beliefs, "abortion should be
safe and legal in this country." Running for governor, he said he
personally opposed abortion but would "protect the right of a
woman to choose under the law of the country and the laws of the
commonwealth." Then as a presidential candidate, he described
himself as "pro-life" and said the Supreme Court should overturn
the landmark Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion.


      On gay rights, Romney wrote a letter during his Senate race
promising a gay Republican group he would be a stronger advocate
for gays and their rights than Kennedy. As a presidential
candidate, he emphasized his opposition to gay marriage and civil
unions. Today, he defends marriage between a man and a woman as
"critical for the well-being of a civilization" and decries
same-sex weddings.


      In his first two campaigns, Romney emphasized his support of
gun-control measures. In 1994, he said: "I don't line up with the
NRA." But in the midst of his White House campaign he called
himself "life-long hunter" and defender of Second Amendment
rights to own guns. It wasn't long before it was disclosed that he
had only recently become a card-carrying National Rifle Association
member.


      "I've always been a rodent and rabbit hunter, small varmints,
if you will," Romney explained later.


      McCain poked at him for wavering on immigration, too.


      "Maybe his solution will be to get out his small varmint gun
and drive those Guatemalans off his lawn," McCain said
sarcastically after it was disclosed that several illegal
immigrants, including at least one from Guatemala, worked at the
lawn care company that tended Romney's property in a Boston suburb
for a decade.


      That didn't square with his hardline position on illegal
immigration, and issue over which he also equivocated.


      In 2006, he said he was against "rounding up 11 million people
and forcing them at gunpoint from our country." But during the
presidential primary, he emphasized strengthening the U.S.-Mexico
border and said: "I disagree fundamentally that the 12 million
people who come here illegally should be allowed to stay here
permanently. I think that is a form of amnesty and that it's not
appropriate."


      Romney said then that it's hardly a crime to change an opinion
over time. He said that is a virtue in leadership.


      "If you're looking for someone who's never changed any
positions on any policies, then I'm not your guy," he said then.
"I do learn from experience. If you want someone who doesn't learn
from experience, who stubbornly takes a position on a particular
act and says, `Well, I'm never changing my view based on what I've
learned,' that doesn't make sense to me."


      Last month, Perry jabbed Romney in a debate for his changes on
abortion and guns, but his words were clumsy.


      Another 2012 Romney rival, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, dinged
him on guns when he visited a gun store in New Hampshire recently.


      Asked what he hunts, Huntsman chided: "Oh, large varmints."

Gallery

Bachmann tied with Perry in Values Voters straw poll

Doubtful social conservatives giving Romney chance

GOP field set: Romney and Perry leading, Bachmann fading

Politics and Government News

This year, the former Massachusetts governor has largely escaped attacks for changing his positions on hot-button issues as he competes again for the Republican presidential nomination. That might be changing.

Romney rivals may go after him for changing stance on issues

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox