Mitt Romney is making his second bid for Iowans’ support after an
unsuccessful run in 2008. We did not endorse him then, but this is a
different field, and he has matured as a candidate. Rebuilding the
economy is the nation’s top priority, and Romney makes the best case
among the Republicans that he could do that.
He stands out in the current field of Republican candidates. He has
solid credentials in a career that includes running and starting
successful businesses, turning around the 2002 Winter Olympics and
working with both political parties as Massachusetts governor to pass
important initiatives. He stands out especially among candidates now in
the top tier: Newt Gingrich is an undisciplined partisan who would
alienate, not unite, if he reverts to mean-spirited attacks on display
as House speaker. Ron Paul’s libertarian ideology would lead to economic
chaos and isolationism, neither of which this nation can afford.
Romney is accused of being a “flip-flopper.” He has evolved from
one-time independent to moderate Republican in liberal Massachusetts to
proud conservative today. He does not deny changing his position on some
issues, but he will say he has made mistakes and has learned from them.
Though Romney has tended to adapt some positions to different times and
places, he is hardly unique. It should be possible for a politician to
say, “I was wrong, and I have changed my mind.”
But more subtle distinctions apply to Romney on some major issues
where he has been accused of flipping or flopping. He helped create
health-care reform in Massachusetts that is strikingly similar to the
much-derided “Obamacare,” for example. Yet Romney argues reasonably,
though not entirely persuasively, that while all states should be free
to experiment with their own reforms, it is wrong for the federal
government to force a one-size-fits-all plan on the entire nation. (Full story here)
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