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This Is Supposed To Build Confidence?

In 1994, NARAL’s Kate Michelman pronounced him a phony pro-choicer. “Mitt Romney, stop pretending,” she demanded. “We need honesty in our public life, not your campaign of deception to conceal your anti-choice views,” she said. Some conservative Boston newspaper columnists view it similarly. As Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe put it: “Romney’s very public […]

In 1994, NARAL’s Kate Michelman pronounced him a phony pro-choicer. “Mitt Romney, stop pretending,” she demanded. “We need honesty in our public life, not your campaign of deception to conceal your anti-choice views,” she said. Some conservative Boston newspaper columnists view it similarly. As Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe put it: “Romney’s very public migration rightward over the last few years is . . . intended not to hide his real views but to liberate them. In 1994, Romney struck me as an extraordinarily bright, talented, and decent man — and a political neophyte who fell for the canard that the only way a conservative could win in Massachusetts was by passing for liberal.” ~James Bopp Jr.

Yes, honesty in public life–what an idea!  Is the point of these anecdotes to make us believe that in his heart of hearts Romney was always pro-life but was engaged in a deception against the people of Massachusetts on two different occasions eight years apart?  That he was posing then, but he is sincere now?  That he really was willing to say anything to get elected, but was never serious about what he said along the way?  Are we supposed to believe that his vehement protestations of protecting a “woman’s right to choose” (he is clearly angry in the 2002 debate at the suggestion that he is in any sense pro-life) and his insistence that it had been his position ever since 1970 were part of an elaborate hoax designed to trick liberal Massachusetts voters into supporting him?  Is the purpose of this part of the article to say that he was always phoney and opportunistic, and not just recently when the White House appeared on the horizon?  In other words, to trust Romney now Mr. Bopp wants us to believe that he was a charlatan before?  I don’t quite understand the thinking here.

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