It’s Not a Flip-Flop If You Believe Both Positions
August 22, 2007 | Permalink
More evidence of why 25% of Republicans are supposedly fed up with Romney
Jonathan Martin writes:
After saying for months that he supports reversing Roe v. Wade and letting states decide their own abortion laws, Romney went on ABC’s “Good Morning America” earlier this month and said he would go further to end the practice.
Asked if he backed the GOP convention platform from 2004 that states, “We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and we endorse legislation to make it clear that the 14th Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children,” Romney indicated that he did.
“You know, I do support the Republican platform, and I support that being part of the Republican platform and I’m pro-life,” Romney said.
Such steps, of course, would outlaw abortion and not let states decide how to address the issue.
But that’s not what he said Tuesday, as Teddy Davis of ABC reported:
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Tuesday in a Nevada television interview that he supports letting states “make their own decision” about whether to keep abortion legal.
“My view is that the Supreme Court has made an error in saying at the national level one size fits all for the whole nation,” Romney told Nevada political columnist Jon Ralston in a televised interview. “Instead, I would let states make their choices.”
Asked by Ralston if it was “OK” with him that Nevada is a “pro-choice state,” Romney said, “I’d let states make their own decision in this regard. My view, of course, is I’m a pro-life individual. That’s the position I support. But, I’d let states have this choice rather than let the federal government have it.”
How did Romney reconcile this seemingly explicit contradiction? By telling ABC Newsthat he believes both:
When ABCNEWS.COM reported Wednesday that states like Nevada would be unable to keep abortion legal if Romney’s ultimate vision were implemented, a Romney spokesman sought to explain the discrepancy by saying that while Romney supports the Human Life Amendment and 14th Amendment legislation contained in the Republican Party’s 2004 platform, he does not view either measure as “achievable” at this time.
By contrast, he views overturning Roe vs. Wade, the Supreme Court case which legalized abortion throughout the United States, as a goal which can be achieved more quickly.
If Romney succeeds in overturning Roe v. Wade through his Supreme Court appointments, states would once again be empowered to make their own decisions about abortion rights.
States would retain this power, under Romney’s vision, until it is possible to outlaw abortion at the federal level. At that point, they would lose this power.
Romney’s camp, however, does not see this day coming any time soon.
“We should aspire to passing a Human Life Amendment when the country as a whole is prepared for it,” Romney spokesman Kevin Madden told ABC News. “The American people just aren’t there yet.”
This isn’t the way to make an nagging campaign issue go away. It seems more like he’s been too busy watching some videos on the internet and wants to advocate both that and the RNC platform position…
Related at 2008Central.net:
- Mitt Romney and Abortion
- Club For Growth Releases Paper on Romney: Another Mixed Record
- Mitt Romney: Everyone Flip-Flops, It’s No Big Deal; Also, Catching UBL Isn’t A Priority
I see no contradiction. He is happy with either solution. The Supreme Court could overturn Roe and give it back to the states, or we could pursue an amendment to the Constitution to protect the unborn. He obviously would prefer the latter, but giving it back to the states would be preferable to leaving things as they are. That’s in fact my position, and I’d pursue either goal over what we have now, even if I’d prefer making it explicit that the 14th Amendment makes it unconstitutional to allow abortion (which I think it does do).
You see know contradiction. That is the same as Giuliani being pro-choice and believing in the right of women to choose and saying he’ll appoint strict constructionist (Republican-speak for pro-life) judges and would be happy if Roe was overturned.
I’m guessing Romney didn’t actually know the platform went so far as to outlaw abortion completely and is afraid to admit such. Either way, he seems more like a phony to me everyday with his unbelievable pandering to the conservative base. I’d have a lot more respect if he had just run as a fiscal conservative–the “we ought to double the size of Guantanamo” comments aren’t helping.
When he says it’s wrong for one size fits all in America, he undermines saying a negative one size fits all later.
Even if his real position makes sense Jeremy (which I admit he might), his complete inability to explain himself (or as Andy points out, know the GOP platform) is a reason a lot of people at this point roll their eyes at him.
This particularly controversy is a direct result of Mitt Romney explaining himself very poorly, nothing else.
[...] for Romney is that he’s apparently very bad at explaining himself. You can look at the discussion in the comment section in the post I made yesterday. It’s clear to people who know Romney what his position is, but the problem is that [...]
[...] for Romney is that he’s apparently very bad at explaining himself. You can look at the discussion in the comment section in the post I made yesterday. It’s clear to people who know Romney what his position is, but the problem is that [...]
Actually, there’s no contradiction in being pro-choice and actually wanting Roe overturned, never mind just being ok with it. Jack Balkin is a good example. He thinks Roe was wrongly decided, and he thinks a different ground should be given for a pro-choice position. Giuliani doesn’t want to get into that issue. He knows he wants generally judicially conservative judges on the bench, and he knows there’s room within that general category for some people who will be incrementalists and allow Roe to stand, and there’s room in it for people to overturn it and let states decide. His policy position is that it should be legal, and that’s what he’d recommend states to do in such a situation.
Giuliani did run into trouble saying that his preferred position is for states to decide and then saying that he’d be happy if Roe stayed in effect. That’s difficult to reconcile, although I think it just shows that he doesn’t really care which happens. He’s happy either way because he doesn’t really care about the issue.
Romney, on the other hand, does want change. He’s willing to pursue the lesser change if that’s all that’s doable, so he’ll seek that. But his more preferred goal is a stronger goal. I see no contradiction in that. He’d be clearer if he said both at once and explained how he could hold both at once, as I have just done. But that doesn’t mean he’s holding contradictory positions.
I agree with you, but Romney explained his position very poorly.
It’s not Romney’s position I have a problem with; it’s his position as he explained it.
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