Widgetized Section
Go to Admin » Appearance » Widgets » and move Gabfire Widget: Social into that MastheadOverlay zone
Romney Tries to Trick Voters into Believing He’s Moderate on Abortion
Mitt Romney just made a fool of the press again. At 4:52PM on Tuesday, the Des Moines Register published an interview with Romney in which he said he had no plans to make any legislation restricting abortion. A scarce two hours later at 6:52PM, his campaign quietly issued yet another retraction.
Follow the Romney policy ball as it zig zags appeasements:
On February 29, 2012, Mitt Romney said he would appoint a Supreme Court Judge who would overturn Roe v Wade. Romney said, “I’m in favor of a pro-life policy. The legislation that relates to abortion which is something that is going to have to be approved by the Supreme Court and the key decisions I’ll take as the president will be number one, stopping funding for Planned Parenthood, re-instituting the Mexico City policy which says our funds can’t be used for abortion around the world and appointing justices to the Supreme Court that will follow the Constitution, hopefully reverse Roe v. Wade, and return to the states, the authority for making law with regards to abortion.” [WNWO (Toledo, OH), 2/29/12]
Watch here:
Then, Mitt Romney said in an interview published on Tuesday October 9th at 4:52 PM, “There’s no legislation with regards to abortion that I’m familiar with that would become part of my agenda.” [Des Moines Register Editorial Board interview, 10/9/12]
A mere two hours later, Mitt Romney’s spokesperson walked back Romney’s statement on abortion in a tweet to the National Journal’s Katrina Trinko at 6:52 PM: @KatrinaTrinko . @andreamsaul on Romney’s abortion comment to DMR: Rom “wld of course support legislation aimed at providing greater protections for life” [Katrina Trinko, Twitter, 10/9/12]
At 10:25PM, Reuters published an article headlined, “Romney says won’t pursue new abortion laws.” See how that works? Romney is getting two very different messages to two very different constituencies and the press doesn’t seem to be aware of how they’re being used. Perhaps they gave up trying to catch the Real Mitt Romney and have resigned themselves to merely reporting what he said this time. The press’ failure to inform is certainly helpful for the Republican candidate.
The brilliance of being a serial liar about your policies is that today’s press and factcheckers will defend you from being called to account for either position, because you are also on record as supporting the opposite policy.
Obama campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith issued a statement saying, “It’s troubling that Mitt Romney is so willing to play politics with such important issues. But we know the truth about where he stands on a woman’s right to choose – he’s said he’d be delighted to sign a bill banning all abortions, and called Roe v. Wade ‘one of the darkest moments in Supreme Court history’ while pledging to appoint Supreme Court justices who will overturn it. Women simply can’t trust him.”
Mitt Romney once again sold a moderate Mitt to the press and the public, and then hours later appeased his base by retracting everything he just said to the public. This is hardly his first go at this deliberate strategy of appeasement and deception; in fact, it’s becoming predictable that Romney walks back most of what is said in interviews and debates that reach a broad audience. The retractions do not reach nearly the same audience.
Romney is trying to trick voters into believing he’s a moderate and the press repeats his latest position as if it means something. Any bets on if they will catch on in time to actually inform the public?
Related Posts :
On CNN's State of the Union today, Candy Crowley - who is moderating the upcoming Presidential debate - ...
Mitt Romney may have finally managed to wake the press up to his duplicity. This, of course, is the one ...
Conservatives were so excited by Mitt Romney's manic attack performance during the first presidential de ...
On "Meet the Press" today, Romney surrogate Senator Marco Rubio confirmed a troubling fact: as President ...
In the LGBT newspaper called the "Bay Windows" there was a story about Mitt Romney and how he will be be ...
9 Responses to Romney Tries to Trick Voters into Believing He’s Moderate on Abortion
Public Service Advertisements
Nursing Clio
Oct. 10th, 2012 at 9:11 am
So can we beging to panic now because polls are showing that Obama and Romney are dead even with women. Women???? And we can blame this sort of shift on Mitts flip flopping. Maybe this was his plan all along and it is very scary, especially if it works. I’ll be honest, I did not think Obama did that horribly (I thought Romney was going to have stroke), but Obama better bring it next week.
Mary
Oct. 10th, 2012 at 9:16 am
We all were warned that he would pull to the center. The so called “liberal Media” have been given their marching orders. their corporate MASTERS, a huge part of the 1% want their puppets to do to Obama what was done to Gore. This is NOT 2000 AND THE PEOPLE LIVING IN THE REAL WORLD KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON… David Gregory needs to go.
clarence swinney
Oct. 10th, 2012 at 10:00 am
MITTNUTS
My first act will be to defund Planned Parenthood. Darn. They prevent more abortions than any unit in America. Mitt loves abortions? PP provides preventative health care for millions of the poorest of poor women. Do not Mormons worship Jesus Christ?
My first act will be to repeal Obamacare. Darn. I thought it is a law of the land passed by Congress.
Mitt now a dictator who can do as he pleases.
My Five Trillion Tax Cut will not add to the deficit. I will pay for it by eliminating tax break loopholes for my rich backers. Sho nuff!
Obama took 716 Billion out of Medicare. Cutting payments to Mitt insurer pals is bad bad bad.
Half of green jobs firms he financed went bankrupt. Less than 10% is not 50% except in Mitts math.
I oppose Dodd-Frank. His ultra rich pals said the same thing.
I will not cut education budget with my trillions for more killing machines. Sho!. Mittmagic.
Mathilda Moon
Oct. 10th, 2012 at 12:11 pm
M is one of the most flagrant flip-floppers I can remember. But now what?
Please tell me he won’t win. Without a simple platform of any kind in place, I can only imagine what would happen to our country. It’s dangerous. Are Americans that taken by shiny objects, too lazy to fact check, or so apathetic that they’ll ‘dumb’ a pathological liar into the White House? I’m at a complete loss. Really.
Leddy Smith
Oct. 10th, 2012 at 2:58 pm
A lie by any other name is still a lie. You can call it prevarication, falsification, fabrication, a fib, or spin, but it is still a lie. The mainstream media are so guarded about calling a lie what it is – like you can call me Mitt, or you can call me Nitt or you can call me _hit, but you doesn’t have to call me a liar.
This morning there was a news flash from NEWSMAX, the conservative website, stating that Romney said in a speech in Des Moine yesterday that if he is elected President he will not request any legislation to overturn Roe v. Wade. He went on to say that he does not have much knowledge on the abortion issue and therefore has no interest in the issue. He has taken this position – an outright lie – to garner support with women due to his lagging numbers with that demographic. He is a pathetic human being with no integrity.
LJ
Oct. 10th, 2012 at 8:59 pm
To read all the comments about Mitt Romney and how he is waging a war on women makes me laugh. You people sound so ignorant. The democrats are the ones who are waging the war on women by making them feel helpless. I am a mother of four daughters. They are very independant and well educated. It makes them furious to read and hear the talk from the democrats on how planned parenthood should be funded with taxpayers money to help support a women’s right to an abortion. I and my daughters are against abortion and do not want our money going to support abortion. A person needs to be responsible for their own actions and that includes making sure you can protect yourself from getting pregnant. A 9.00 a month prescription for birth control is a low fee for preventing a pregnancy.
WidowNor
Oct. 10th, 2012 at 11:17 pm
LJ – so I guess you missed the study that proved that unrestricted and free access to birth control slashes the number of abortions? That study was conducted in St. Louis – look it up. If you’re against abortion you should be FOR birth control. Also, not all forms of birth control cost 9.00 a month. The cheapest/generic might.. but it’s a medication and one medicine is not right for everyone. That’s an individual issue. I couldn’t take oral contraceptives and needed Depo-Provera for reproductive issues. That’s a heck of a lot more than 9 bucks a month. If you and your daughters are so set against abortion – you SHOULD support Planned Parenthood, because their main goal is to prevent unwanted pregnancy, not terminate it after the fact.
Rudy Gonzales
Oct. 10th, 2012 at 11:46 pm
Face it y’all! ‘;Ol Romney has morphed into what you want to hear. He’s a real conservative at all he’s a cameleon seeking higher office to best his father. But his faather released ten years of tax returns to show he wasn’t hiding a thing. So what is Romney hiding? Inquisitive minds want to know!
Cc
Oct. 18th, 2012 at 9:06 pm
Any woman who votes Republican this year, is voting for the elimination, not only of her own right, but that of her daughter, her sister, her best friend, her aunts…in short, she is voting against the rights of ALL women. I urge women to consider that if abortion and contraception are ‘distractions’ or ‘non-issues’, as the GOP continually intones, then WHY HAS THIS CONGRESS CONCENTRATED ON THEM for the last 3 years, to the exclusion of nearly all other issues? What jobs bills have been passed? Here are the numbers – these facts should speak for themselves.
“The numbers: Republicans have introduced 44 bills on abortion, 99 on religion, 71 on family relationships, 36 on marriage, 67 on firearms/gun control, 522 on taxation, 445 on ‘government investigations,’ and ZERO on job creation.”
The problem with the 112th Congress isn’t a structural impediment; it’s the result of a radicalized Republican Party that has no use for compromise, evidence, or reason. We have a congressional GOP abandoning all institutional norms, pushing extremist policies, rejecting their own ideas if they enjoy Democratic support, and engaging in tactics that were once thought unthinkable from policymakers who put the nation’s needs first.
“Worst. Congress. Ever.” Indeed, this Congress may deliberately cause a global economic catastrophe to obtain their ‘secret agenda’.
The public needs to understand that Congress, at an institutional level, doesn’t bear all of the blame. The stark raving mad Republican Party does. And like Romney they will say and do ANYTHING to get themselves in the power positions needed to obtain THEIR self-benefiting goals.