Romney Knifes Liberal Activists in the Back
As many conservatives seem ready to buy into Mitt Romney’s stock, they better ask the people who Mitt embraced in his last election: Massachusetts’ Social Liberal activists:
As an abortion-rights advocate, Deborah Allen did not think she would find much in common with Mitt Romney. Then she heard his pitch.
If elected Massachusetts governor, Romney said in an endorsement meeting, he would "preserve and protect" legal abortion. The judges he picked would probably do the same. And then he said something so unexpected that Allen began to see Romney, a Republican whom she had considered an uncertain ally, as sincere in his search for common ground.
"You need someone like me in Washington," he said, according to Allen and two other abortion-rights activists, whose group was deciding whether to endorse Romney in the 2002 race for governor. Though running for state office, Romney hinted at national ambitions and said he would soften the GOP’s position on abortion. The Republians’ hard-line stance, he said, was "killing them."
Today, Romney is running for president and promising to pull the Republican Party in the opposite direction, returning it to the conservative principles of Ronald Reagan. He has renounced his support for abortion rights and has shifted his language on gay rights, campaign finance and other issues, bringing him more in step with Republican voters. He mocks Massachusetts, the state he led until January, as "sort of San Francisco East, Nancy Pelosi-style."
Though Romney’s policy shifts have become widely known, his meetings with activists for abortion rights and other causes — which have received far less attention — show he put much work into winning support from Massachusetts’ liberal establishment only a few years ago.
Making personal appeals on the state’s liberal touchstones — gay rights, abortion rights and the environment — Romney developed a persuasive style, convincing audiences that his passion matched theirs and that he was committed to their causes.
He impressed environmentalists by using rhetoric sharper than theirs. He met gay-rights activists on their turf, in a restaurant attached to a popular gay bar, and told skeptics he would be a "good voice" and a moderating force within his party.
And in many cases, he said his commitment had been cemented by watching the suffering of someone dear to him: a grandchild whose asthma left him worried about air pollution; his wife’s multiple sclerosis, which had him placing hope in embryonic stem cell research; the death of a distant relative in an illegal abortion, convincing him that the procedure needed to remain legal.
It’s pretty easy to see that Romney snowed liberal activists in Massachusetts to gain their support. Ann Coulter at CPAC said of Mitt Romney:
"…And you have to say about Romney, he tricked liberals into voting for him." (laughter) I like a guy who hoodwinks liberals so easily. "
Never does she nor most of the conservatives flocking to Romney consider that Romney could just as easily "con" them as he did libreals in MA. Romney may be the most audacious conman in the history of America. In 2002, he tried to convince social liberals he was one of them, and in 2007, he’s trying to do the same thing with social conservatives. Trusting a man of no integrity in hopes he won’t doublecross you is absurd and foolish.
Hat Tip: Instapundit
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