GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney: I’m more pro-gay than Teddy Kennedy
This, Mitt believes… (Volume 1)
Potential ‘08 Contender Romney’s Mormon Faith Could Backfire With GOP’s Evangelical Base….
When he ran against Ted Kennedy for the Senate in 1994, Romney wrote a letter to the Massachusetts Log Cabin Club, pledging that as “we seek to establish full equality for American gay and lesbian citizens, I will provide more effective leadership than my opponent.” During that same campaign, Romney was accused of once describing gay people as “perverse.” In response, Romney’s campaign vehemently denied that he used the word “perverse” and said that he respected “all people regardless of their race, creed, or sexual orientation.”….While running for governor in 2002, Romney and his running mate, Kerry Healey, distributed pink fliers at a Gay Pride parade, declaring “Mitt and Kerry wish you a great Pride weekend.” He backed domestic partner benefits for public employees, winning the endorsement of the national Log Cabin Republicans. In his inaugural speech, he promised to defend civil rights “regardless of gender, sexual orientation, or race.”….As governor, he appointed openly gay and lesbian people to high-profile administration positions. He doubled the budget line item for the Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth, until he tried to disband it last May — more political theater for the Republican right.
Mitt Romney wants to be President…yawn…and who doesn’t these days? While any candidate is going to bring his or her own baggage to the campaign trail, no one is going to have to tapdance through a minefield in quite the way that Romney will. I’m not certain that Mikhail Baryshnikov could pull off the dance number that Romney is going to have to in order to convince (uber-Conservative) Republican primary voters that he hates all things gay enough to be the party’s standard-bearer in 2008.
Of course, proving that you hate homosexuals would be second-nature to a Republican. In Romney’s case, though, there’s just one little problem. No, it’s actually one HUGE, and very likely insurmountable, problem. As the former Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Romney actively and agreesively courted the support of the state’s Gay and Lesbian community. How else do you think a Conservative Republican could get elected in what’s arguably the most flamingly Liberal state in the nation?
What worked in Massachusetts, though, is probably not going to play well in Peoria. Primary season for Republicans is usually a race to the Right…and all Romney’s opponents have to do is to point at his record in Massachusetts to put him at a severe disadvantage with the GOP’s rabidly Social Conservative primary voters. And those pink fliers are going to look great on an anti-Romney TV ad, eh?
For more than a decade, Mitt Romney has been dancing around some hot-button social issues. Now, he is running hard to the right to position himself for the 2008 presidential contest.
But his tutu catches on some inconvenient realities: He ran for office twice in Massachusetts as a moderate, pro choice Republican. All the political theatrics in the world can’t change the record.
Take Romney’s war on gay marriage in Massachusetts. The governor is now asking the state’s highest court to force a referendum on a proposed amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman.
Obviously, Romney is laboring hard to establish his social-conservative credentials for upcoming Republican primaries.
If Mitt Romney was running for President of Massachusetts, you’d have to like his chances. The problems for a Republican like Romney, though, is convincing die-hard Republican Social Conservatives in places like Texas, Idaho, Utah, and Nevada that he’s one of them.
Yeah, and how long will it be before one of his Republican opponents trot out one of those pink fliers?
As governor, he appointed openly gay and lesbian people to high-profile administration positions. He doubled the budget line item for the Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth, until he tried to disband it last May — more political theater for the Republican right.
Romney also chose to stage his big antigay marriage rally on the State House steps after the Nov. 9 constitutional convention. Why not before legislators took their vote on the marriage amendment?
And Romney accuses Senator John McCain of Arizona of being “disingenuous “? McCain simply said that while he opposes gay marriage, he believes the states should decide the issue. Abortion is another tough — make that disingenuous — issue for Romney. He was pro choice in Massachusetts before he was anti choice as a would-be presidential candidate.
You’ll notice that I haven’t even addressed the 800-lb. gorilla in the room- Romney’s Mormon faith, which isn’t exactly going to endear him to the Relgious Right. No, methinks that Romney is going to have enough on his hands trying to prove that he’s reliably anti-gay enough to be the next Republican Presidential nominee. The whole Mormon thing will no doubt prove to be more than he can overcome. Republican Primary votes like their Presidential candidates Christian and reliably and demonstrably anti-gay.
It’s going to be interesting to watch Romney dance away from his record as Governor. Will he be able to convince Republican primary voters that, even though he embraced Gays and Lesbians as Governor of Massachusetts, he now thoroughly condemns them and their sinful, licentious lifestyle now that he’s running for President.
Frankly, I don’t think Baryshnikov could pull off this dance, much less Mitt Romney. I can’t even begin to imagine how Romney’s going to manage it. How do you go from a tolerant, accepting person as Governor to a judgemental, intolerant gay-basher when you want to be President? It’s easy, really; all you have to do is run for President as a Republican.So much for the courage of your convictions, eh?
It also doesn’t hurt to be a confirmed DUMB@$$….
