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“If you're looking for someone who's never changed any positions on any policies, then I'm not your guy” From a story in The Advocate December 2007 Republican Mitt Romney sought Sunday to deflect charges that he is a flip-flopper, insisting he had learned from experience and could be counted on to keep his campaign promises if elected president. “If you're looking for someone who's never changed any positions on any policies, then I'm not your guy,” Romney said on NBC's Meet the Press. At the same time, Romney insisted that as governor he kept all of his campaign promises despite changing some views, and he said he would stick to his promises if elected president. “Bottom line: All the positions you laid out today as a presidential candidate, can you assure the voters you won't flip back to some of the positions you had when you were governor of Massachusetts?” asked NBC moderator Tim Russert. “Of course,” Romney responded. Russert also questioned Romney about his unsuccessful Senate run in 1994, when he promised to be“more effective on gay rights in the Senate than Ted Kennedy.” RUSSERT: You say you'd be a more effective leader on gay rights than Ted Kennedy. ROMNEY: And, and let me — let's, let's do them one by one. OK, Tim? Let's just go through them one by one. And, and here's my view. I don't believe in discriminating against someone based upon their sexual orientation. And so I would be effective in trying to bring greater recognition of the, of the rights of people not, not to be discriminated against. Let me... RUSSERT: You said — you said that you would cosponsor the... ROMNEY: Tim, Tim, Tim... RUSSERT: Wait a minute. Wait a minute. This is important. ROMNEY: OK, fine. RUSSERT: You said that you would sponsor the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Do you still support it? ROMNEY: At the state level. I think it makes sense at the state level for states to put in provision of this. RUSSERT: Now, you said you would sponsor it at the federal level. ROMNEY: I would not support at the federal level, and I changed in that regard because I think that policy makes more sense to be evaluated or to be implemented at the state level. And let me describe why. RUSSERT: So you did — you did change. Among other issues: –Abortion. Romney acknowledged changing his views in 2004 from supporting abortion rights to opposing abortion. He said he did not entirely betray abortion-rights voters either, because he did not seek to change Massachusetts abortion laws. –Taxes. Romney said he promised not to raise taxes as governor and did not go back on his word by raising fees by about $240 million to help balance the budget. The fees were on services such as gun licenses and training to combat domestic violence. He explained that because the fees were not on broad-based services, such as driver's licenses, they did not “have a sense, a feeling like a tax.” “I ran as an individual who would not raise taxes, and I didn't,” he said. –Guns. Romney said, like President Bush, he would have signed an extension of the federal assault weapons ban if Congress had acted on it before it expired in 2004. A Des Moines Register survey from October said, “Romney opposes reinstating the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004. He does not believe any more federal gun laws are needed but said he would consider signing carefully tailored legislation regulating weapons of ‘unusual lethality or power.’” |
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