Thursday, August 23, 2007

MITT ROMNEY

A Front Page Swing and a Miss by the Washington Post on Romney

I was going to address the front-page Washington Post story "Romney Struggles to Define Abortion Stance", but Kathryn did a pretty solid job of dismantling it in the Corner. The Post argues:

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney said this week that as president he would allow individual states to keep abortion legal, two weeks after telling a national television audience that he supports a constitutional amendment to ban the procedure nationwide.

In an interview with a Nevada television station on Tuesday, Romney said Roe. v. Wade should be abolished and vowed to "let states make their own decision in this regard." On Aug. 6, he told ABC's George Stephanopoulos that he supports a human life amendment to the Constitution that would protect the unborn.

The Romneyites contend it's step one, repeal Roe vs. Wade, and leave it to the states, and step two, further in the future, pass the human life amendment when there's more support for the idea.

The only thing I can add is looking back at Mitt Romney's op-ed, discussing his conversion to the pro-life cause, back in 2005:

I am prolife. I believe that abortion is the wrong choice except in cases of incest, rape, and to save the life of the mother. I wish the people of America agreed, and that the laws of our nation could reflect that view. But while the nation remains so divided over abortion, I believe that the states, through the democratic process, should determine their own abortion laws and not have them dictated by judicial mandate.

"I wish that the laws of the nation reflected that view" — easily interpreted as support for a constitutional amendment. "I believe that the states should determine their own abortionl laws and not have them dictated by judicial mandate" - repeal Roe v. Wade and leave it to states.

I was reminded of something a Romney guy told me a while back - that as candidates get their storylines (or, arguably, charicatures), all of their actions get interpreted through those storylines. If Fred Thompson takes a day off, he's lazy; if Romney says good afternoon" a few hours after saying "good morning" he's accused of flip-flopping. Romney will never get called lazy, and flip-flopping won't be the knock on Fred.

08/23 12:48 PMShare