those of you who have been reading this blog for a few months know that i have supported the idea of governor mitt romney running for president in ’08 from the beginning. i like the fact that he has reduced the size of government in massachusetts. his message also appeals to me. i think that a message that speaks to issues of concern to many americans, including education, health care, and the necessary reform of social services, is the right one for republicans to adopt. i’m glad romney is talking about these things, and i hope that the message will be copied by other republicans who want to be our next president.

i like romney. have i been clear enough about that? however, i think his conflicting views on abortion are going to end up being a stumbling block for him on the road to the republican nomination.

the following exchange took place between governor romney and chris wallace on fox news sunday.

WALLACE: You have come under fire for allegedly flip-flopping on the issue of abortion. You’ve faced questions about that, so let’s talk about that today. When you were running for governor of Massachusetts back in 2002, you said — and let’s put it up on the screen — “I believe women should have the right to make their own choice.”

But now that you’re considering a race for president, you say you’re a pro-life governor who wishes the laws of the nation could reflect that view. Governor, why the change?

ROMNEY: Well, we had a major issue in Massachusetts, and it surrounded stem cell research. I spent a lot of time talking with people scientific in background as well as religious and spent a lot of time understanding when it was that as a society we needed to respect human life and came to the conclusion that it’s time to be very clear on that, that when conception occurs that human life has begun.

I’m not talking about religious definitions, but scientific definitions — and that to respect human life, we have to do so from conception. And therefore, I indicated I am pro-life and will respect the rights of human life.

WALLACE: But I don’t understand, Governor. I mean, the stem cell question, which often deals with the question of harvesting of eggs or fetuses to be used for stem cell — that isn’t why most women get abortions. I mean, there’s a division there, isn’t there?

ROMNEY: Well, there is a division there, and I’m happy to talk about stem cell research.

WALLACE: Well, no, but I’m asking about abortion. I mean, the vast majority of women aren’t getting an abortion so that they can sell their fetus.

ROMNEY: No, this is about when respect for life begins and when we as a society — and I believe fundamentally in a society there has to be respect for human life.

And when I ran for governor, I said very clearly I do not support abortion, I do not favor abortion, but I will maintain a moratorium on any change in the laws of Massachusetts relating to abortion.

One of the big issues in our race was whether there was going to be a reduction in the age of parental involvement in abortion from 18 to 16. I said no, no change in abortion laws. But I didn’t call myself pro-life or pro-choice. But after…

WALLACE: But you did say, as I said in the quote, women should have the right to make their own choice. I guess the question I have is are you saying that you only came to the conclusion about when life begins — this has been an issue for 30 years, 40 years — in the last three years?

ROMNEY: Chris, what I’m saying is that my position has evolved and it changed from where it was before. And I said — and the time of the change came as we were involved in the discussion of stem cell research, and I said at that point I am pro-life.

I’ve never used either title, pro-life or pro-choice, in the past. I said I don’t favor abortion. I wouldn’t change the laws as governor because I believe each state should have the right to make their own choice. But I’m very firmly pro-life.

i don’t think romney had a very strong answer to chris wallace’s questions about abortion. there are some things in his record that he can’t gloss over by talking about his views on stem cell research. romney has the inconvenient problem of trying to survive politically in a hard-core democratic (some might even say a liberal) state. i guess i could see the necessity of occasional compromises, but an issue like abortion is something that a governor who wants to be president should have decided one way or the other. the theory that the next republican nominee will most likely be pro-life seems logical to me, and it makes sense that romney would want to position himself that way.

there’s some contradictory evidence that romney may not be “firmly pro-life” as he says. it’s hard to distance yourself from supporting the legalization of RU-486, the abortion-inducing drug. he also has made past statements, in which he says that he is personally opposed to abortion, but that he would not attempt to change the laws of massachusetts to reflect that belief. that might be a hard sell to many in the pro-life community.
romney’s position that the states should decide on whether abortion should be legal or not sounds reasonable to me, but i’m not sure it will satisfy his critics on this issue. it’s possible to change your mind on abortion. i just hope that romney’s “firmly pro-life” position is genuine, and not a position taken for political advantage. i would like to believe that it is genuine. we will see what other pro-lifers think closer to the ’08 election.

related:

Romney reaches out to party’s evangelical base–the state (SC)
Romney Touts Conservative Credentials in S.C.–chris cillizza’s politics blog (washingtonpost.com)

ladies and gentlemen, massachusetts governor mitt romney.

from the atlantic monthly’s the holy cow candidate:

“I believe people who are in a position of visibility and leadership affect the character of young people and individuals who look to them as leaders. And in some respects just as important as their policies and positions is their character and their substance. What for me makes people like Teddy Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt and John Adams and George Washington and Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan such extraordinary leaders is that they had integrity through and through. What they were on the inside and what they said on the outside was harmonious. There are a lot of people like that. I think that if people try to live a very different personal life not consistent with the role they’ve assumed as a governor or a senator or a president, we lose something as a nation.”

mitt romney

i like governor romney’s statement here. he’s got all the right words…character, integrity, substance. music to the ears of red state republicans. romney is definitely running for president, and i like the idea of his candidacy for several reasons. the republicans have ceded the issues of education, healthcare and concern for the poor to the democrats. they have fought elections on tax cuts and strong foreign policy, which has been a winning formula the past two elections. i’m not opposed to tax cuts. i think that we need to have continued vigilance in our approach to foreign policy concerns. that was an effective tack against john kerry, but for the republicans to win the white house in ’08, they need to address other issues in addition to foreign policy and tax cuts.

governor romney understands this, which is why he speaks about these other issues. he made education, healthcare, and government reform top priorities in massachusetts, and he has had some success in all three areas. he stresses the importance of education and technology advancements in a december 12th speech to new hampshire republicans (which i would quote here if i had the transcript). massachusetts is not a friendly state for conservatives. after all, this is the state that continues to elect john kerry and ted kennedy. some conservatives may question how genuine romney’s position on abortion is and whether he takes the convenient position politically depending on the audience. some on the religious right may take issue with his position on using unused embryos from fertility clinics for stem-cell research(wikipedia). there is also the question of how the religious right will react to romney being a mormon, which shouldn’t be something that disqualifies him to be president.

from the james taranto article at opinionjournal.com:

Yet on the issues, Mr. Romney is largely in tune with the Christian right. “I am pro-life,” he says, though he’s not an absolutist. He favors a return to the status quo ante Roe v. Wade, when states decided abortion policy. In 2002, recognizing that Massachusetts is an “overwhelmingly pro-choice state,” he campaigned only on a promise to veto any legislation changing the state’s abortion laws, including a proposal, which Ms. O’Brien [romney’s democratic opponent] endorsed, to reduce the age of parental consent to 16 from 18. The Legislature never passed that measure.

Some question whether he is antiabortion enough to satisfy his party’s base. But George W. Bush has made similar nods to political reality–“I’m a realistic enough person to know that America is not ready to ban abortions,” he said in 1999–and few dispute the president’s pro-life credentials.

this makes sense to me, even as someone who is somewhat in tune with the Christian right myself. romney’s position is a reasonable one, and i wouldn’t disqualify him from the republican nomination in ’08 just for this reason. i’m ok with states deciding issues like abortion. i don’t believe that abortion will ever be banned across the board as a practical matter. that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t want abortions to happen less often than they do now. i am concerned that he supported the legalization of ru-486 (at least he did back in 1994), but it’s possible that his position could have changed on this from 10+ years ago.

as for the question of whether romney’s mormon faith will keep him from getting necessary support from the religious right…from the weekly standard:

Someone willing to go on the record was Charles Colson of Prison Fellowship. Notwithstanding his “fundamental” theological differences with Mormonism, Colson said, “I could in very good conscience support Romney,” calling him “a first-rate guy in every respect” and “a social conservative on most of the issues we care about.” Colson obviously wasn’t declaring for Romney, but simply indicating that he would not in religious principle, so to speak, be opposed to Romney and indeed could find political reasons to support him. Whether he would actually do so, of course, would “all depend on what the lineup is” and “where each person stands.” The other evangelical leaders I contacted took the same view. Colson offered the likely correct forecast: Romney’s appeal to evangelicals might slacken if a competent evangelical or Catholic with social views similar to Romney’s were in the race; on the other hand, Romney’s stock with evangelicals might go up if he were pitted against candidates holding more liberal social views, regardless of their religion.

the bad news right now for a romney candidacy is the not-so-small matter of name recognition. nobody knows who the guy is, especially compared to more popular potential ’08 contenders like giuliani, mccain, allen, etc. the democrats are even trying to find skeletons in romney’s closet. good luck with that attempt.

don’t count romney out. he’s been preparing for this since the ’04 republican national convention. he’s got a better shot at the nomination than mccain, who hasn’t convinced me that he can win over the religious right or that he can run an effective campaign against more socially conservative republican opponents. whether romney gets my support or not depends on who the opposition is. i like his views on government reform, education, foreign policy, and healthcare. republicans need to talk about all these issues, and not just surrender the discussion of them to the democrats. the other contenders should adopt romney’s message, because it’s a winning one for republicans.

related:

Matinee Mitt–NRO
Mitt Romney-Wikipedia
The Holy Cow Candidate–the atlantic monthly
In 2008, Will It Be Mormon in America?–the weekly standard
Mass. Gov. Romney Wants Nation to Improve Education–FNC