Everybody’s running in circles over Mitt Romney telling The Des Moines Register that “There’s no legislation with regards to abortion that I’m familiar with that would become part of my agenda,” and his campaign then issuing statements that supposedly pull him back into the pro-life camp.
I had to smile at this Slate piece about “Romney’s Abortion ‘Agenda’,” which bore the subhed, “Don’t fall for his insinuation that he won’t restrict abortion. It’s full of weasel words.”
Yeah, well, don’t fall for any insinuation he makes that he will restrict abortion, either.
I don’t believe the guy cares one way or the other, which is why the noises he makes on the subject to differing audiences seem so… malleable.
Then why does he say anything about it? I guess you could say he was for abortion before he was against it. The real point is not whether he has some sort of abortion agenda in mind but rather why doesn’t he have a serious-minded core conviction about THIS issue? It’s one of those issues that just doesn’t lend itself to indifference. But that’s Mitt. (Or is it Willard).
Lots and lots of people don’t have deep convictions on the subject. I think he’s one of them.
Seems like from the comments generated here more folks are passionate about this issue than just about anything else. I find it not credible that a Mormon running for president does not have a deep conviction for this issue. If that is the case then he should say so rather than all this spinning and flip-flopping.
Is Romney a flip-flopper with no convictions or an extremist, radical, right-winger?
I keep getting so confused.
I’m OK with women getting abortions, but I’m also against public finance of elective surgeries – including abortion.
Just to be clear, I am also against any public financing of gender reassignment, rhinoplasty, eyelifts, breast augmentation, etc.
I do support elective cosmetic surgeries in the case of burn victims, people who have had mastectomies etc.
Is Romney a flip-flopper with no convictions or an extremist, radical, right-winger?
-Bryan
Good question. What he is is a man who is willing to say anything depending on who is audience is at the time. That comes across as flip-flopping but a better term is lack of core conviction. Or perhaps he has a core conviction but chooses not to tell anyone in much the same way he refuses to release his taxes. My question to all my conservative friends is this, Don’t you have some doubts as to what he will do if he is elected? I suspect he’ll govern as a conservative but frankly it’s not clear from his words.
This whole effort to portray Romney as a right wing extremist is asinine. He was governor of MA, for Moroni’s sake! It’s not like he was governor of SC.
I don’t think anyone rational thinks Romney is a extreme right winger.
Burl, I don’t think it’s accurate to say that Republicans as a class of people have a “consuming interest” in changing abortion law, and it’s even less likely that they have such an interest in birth control.
I think it’s true that a SUBSET of Republicans care deeply about abortion, and will take every opportunity they can find to limit it. A few years back, that faction had a lot of pull in the party. But it’s not something the Tea Party cares passionately about.
I don’t know of any out there pushing to legally limit birth control — unless you count people who don’t want to be compelled to PAY for it. But that’s a different category.
25 to 33% of the GOP electorate cares deeply about limiting abortion.
Romney honestly doesn’t care one way or another.
But he does need that 25 to 33% to be excited enough in the next few days, pound the pavement and show up on November 6.
Beyond that he doesn’t care.
HE may not, but the Republicans have a consuming interest in outlawing abortion and birth control, far more than any other subject — including the economy — and Romney is the point man for his party.
Romney is not on the extreme right of his party, but his party has drifted so far rightwards over the past 30 years that he’d have to be called “severely conservative” (to use his words) by any historical standard. More alarming, he seems to have increasingly embraced a neoconservative worldview.
Romney’s “core conviction” is that he wants to be president.
Of all the SINGLE-issue voters out there the most prominent group are those who their decision on abortion. The pro-choice and anti-choice single-issue voters probably approximately cancel each other out. Far more than single issue voters who choose on tax policy, military spending, the national debt or even jobs.
Phillip: “Romney… he seems to have increasingly embraced a neoconservative worldview.”
Yeah, but I’m still not really warming up to the guy.
And yes, Karen, I think that’s his core conviction. He sees himself as a professional manager, and the country as something that needs managing.
This is actually a POSITIVE in my mind. I don’t like campaign promises. I like to elect competent people whom I trust (generally, based on past performance) to deal effectively with the challenges that we can’t even imagine ahead of time — things that pronouncements about litmus-test issues don’t do a thing to prepare you for.
But his willingness to PRETEND to have allegiance to changing positions on the litmus-test issues does bother me.
“but his party has drifted so far rightwards over the past 30 years that he’d have to be called “severely conservative” (to use his words) by any historical standard”
As if the Democrats haven’t been moving left at an equal pace.
Silence, can you imagine the face on a child knowing the letter R was brought to them by Rodney Allen Rippey instead of Justin Bieber.
I don’t know if the older Sesame Street can teach 3 year olds about things like homosexuality like the modern ones do. You know things that 3 year olds need to know about.
Well then, I guess we can all put our minds at rest about the composition of the US Supreme Court.
No worries about Roe v. Wade or even Griswold v. Connecticut if Romney gets an opportunity to nominate a new Justice? No chance that Romney would reconstitute the Committee on Federal Judicial Selection that met on Thursdays in the Roosevelt Room during the Reagan administration?
Off topic, SDII, but Sesame Street hasn’t taken government money in 30 years.
Now the Salt Lake Olympics, which did ask for and get, at Romney’s request, nearly half a billion $$ in bailout cash is something different….
Nope, Brad. Unless you mean by “subset” the Republicans currently in office or determining the party’s direction:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0812/80122.html
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/01/06/399048/report-24-states-enacted-92-abortion-restrictions-in-2011/
http://truth-out.org/news/item/6304:the-war-on-a-womans-right-to-choose-2012-edition
“. . . Democrats . . . moving left at an equal pace.” Huh? By comparison with Lyndon Johnson, George McGovern, Michael Dukakis, the Dems have moved rightward, if anything.
@SDII – I actually had to look up who Rodney Allen Rippey was.
I prefer the letter “T” brought to you by Tyler Perry.
Has anyone heard the story of the Tennessee GOP congressman who has a 100% pro-life voting record who got his mistress pregnant and stongly urged her to have an abortion? Maybe it’s just an urban legend but if true it sure doesn’t speak well of folks who vote 100% pro-life.
@Silence – Not surprised, but you probably also approve of Bert and Ernie finally being able to get married too.
Apparently this is true. One of the GOP freshman first elected in 2010 DID get his mistress pregnant and DID plead with her to get an abortion. Then he blamed her for getting pregnant and waiting until the pregancy was in an advanced state. Apparently the woman did ultimately have the abortion. This all took place before 2001. Unbelievable this guy and his 100% pro-life voting record.
http://www.timesnews.net/article/9052774/divorce-court-transcript-pro-life-tennessee-congressman-urged-mistress-to-have-abortion
Well, I can tell you for sure, the guy in Tennessee will not get my vote. How dare he do such a thing, after all, he represents “ALL” pro-life supporters, doesn’t he? If some are hypocrites, then by inference, all are hypocrites, right bud?
You beat me to it, Bart. In response to Bud’s assertion that “if true it sure doesn’t speak well of folks who vote 100% pro-life,” I was going to say, no, that’s completely wrong.
It doesn’t speak well of THIS GUY, and that’s it.
And I say that as someone who is not a “100 percent pro-life voter.” I’m not a 100-percent ANYTHING voter.
What will be interesting to see is how his re-election goes. That would say something in addition to the obvious fact that this guy is a hypocrital creep.
That’s a really rural district, bud. He’ll probably have no problems. I doubt they have any internets there. That district is where your car goes when it gets stolen if you live in Knoxville, Nashville, or Chattanooga. Seriously.
Al Gore didn’t just invent the internets for the city folk. I bet he gets beaten.