This Soren Dayton piece is a really good take down of Romney over “the smallish” issue of Romney’s education department funding outreach to LGBT youth. The piece is a small but critical take down of Romney’s lurch right as it demonstrates that he’s never been a full on homophobe. Here’s the thing though, why aren’t these bloggers writing similar pieces about McCain? Maybe, they’re “making room” for their McCain alternative? Surely, it’s not difficult to do, it’s not that McCain hasn’t had a history of flip-flops.
* McCain went from saying he would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade to saying the exact opposite.
* McCain criticized TV preacher Jerry Falwell as “an agent of intolerance” in 2002, but has since decided to cozy up to the man who said Americans “deserved” the 9/11 attacks. (Indeed, McCain has now hired Falwell’s debate coach.)
* McCain used to oppose Bush’s tax cuts for the very wealthy, but he reversed course in February.
* In 2000, McCain accused Texas businessmen Sam and Charles Wyly of being corrupt, spending “dirty money” to help finance Bush’s presidential campaign. McCain not only filed a complaint against the Wylys for allegedly violating campaign finance law, he also lashed out at them publicly. In April, McCain reached out to the Wylys for support.
* McCain supported a major campaign-finance reform measure that bore his name. In June, he abandoned his own legislation.
* McCain used to think that Grover Norquist was a crook and a corrupt shill for dictators. Then McCain got serious about running for president and began to reconcile with Norquist.
Will the McCain takedown ever happen or are people too busy laying the red carpet to St. Paul?
I’ve argued, much like Jerome, that Brownback is actually an underrated contender for the presidency. He certainly has the message and the beginning of an organization for an Iowa win. The question is if he can build an organization nationally to delay a McCain coronation?
3 Responses to “Yet Another Romney Take Down”
I wonder, though, if attacking Romney for flip-flops isn’t just about low hanging fruit. McCain, even if guilty of the same intellectual, rhetorical, and political reversals as Romney is a hard target.
The real question will be whether or not the metrics of ideological consistency that are used against Romney are applied to other candidates like McCain, Giuliani, Pataki, or Hagel.
Soren, is your concern that if you don’t take down Romney, no one will? We’ve been pretty hard on Romney – I think we all find his candidacy fairly laughable (see the poll comparing him to John Cox as one example).
I don’t think any of us have a horse in this race – we will be equal opportunity underminers of any GOP hopeful’s campaign.
Something to say?
This, of course, makes the point exactly about McCain. Democrats, like you, Edwards, or Vilsack, attack McCain a whole bunch. And the pro-Romney ones are attacking McCain over all of these as we speak.
Left by Soren Dayton
January 7, 2007 at 12:59am