Unfortunately I have to add another list to my "Criticism of Mitt Romney" page.
The Criticisms is "Romney is not a true Republican because he voted for Paul Tsongas."
First a clarification. Romney voted for George H. Bush in the General (final) election, but he voted for Paul Tsongas in the primaries.
Every belief has many valid reasons to agree and disagree with it. I created a page for this belief here:
Reasons to disagree (Romney was wrong to vote for Tsongas)
1. Romney was a good republican because he was very practical. In 1992 there was no Republican primary. He had two options. He could sit on the side lines and not vote (like me this last election cycle) or he could vote for the best candidate who would not likely beat Bush in the General election. Romney chose the latter. This does not make him a bad republican.
2. Paul Tsongas was a fiscal conservative.
3. Paul Tsongas was a good guy.
4. I wish every Republican would have registered as independents in 1992 and voted for Paul Tsongus. Bush would have lost anyways, but we would have had Tsongus instead of Clinton. And now Hillary Clinton. Maybe George H. Bush would have won against Paul Tsongus. Two descent guys, that had nothing to do with Hollywood instead of Bill going against H. Bush in 1992.
5. Maybe all Republicans should claim independent, so that we can vote for Hillary in the Primaries and our guys in the general election.
6. There was no GOP primary contest in 92. In 1992 Mitt Romney voted against Bill Clinton twice.
7. I am a Romney fan, but not even I think Romney was smart enough to see that Bill Clinton was a bigger liability than George H. Bush was an asset for our Country. I am not going to attribute Mitt Romney of difficult political calculus. This was very basic addition. Vote once for the guy you like best, or vote twice? Hmm, let me see…
Reasons to agree
1. A good republican would never vote for a Democrat.
2. A vote for a Democrat is a vote for the Devil himself. D is for Devil. Even if it is the just the primary and you vote for George H. Bush (like Romney) in the General election.
But now Dan Rather's ABC is looking for times that Mitt Romney has discussed the same issue on different occasions, and not used the exact same verbatim language. ABC says that according to some (top notch, infallible, always trust worthy) Boston Globe reporters Romney did not give the exact verbatim explanation of why he voted for Tsongas as his explanation on Tomorrow's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos".
According to the Boston Globe reporters, "Romney confirmed he voted for former U.S. Sen. Paul Tsongas in the state's 1992 Democratic presidential primary, saying he did so both because Tsongas was from Massachusetts and because he favored his ideas over those of Bill Clinton," the Boston Globe's Scot Lehigh and Frank Phillips wrote on Feb. 3, 1994. "He added he had been sure the G.O.P. would renominate George Bush (was their any question?), for whom he voted in the fall election."
According to ABC this is somehow contradicted when Romney says; "In Massachusetts, if you register as an independent, you can vote in either the Republican or Democratic primary," said Romney, who until he made an unsuccessful run for Senate in 1994 had spent his adult life as a registered independent. "When there was no real contest in the Republican primary, I'd vote in the Democrat primary, vote for the person who I thought would be the weakest opponent for the Republican."
Alright. Mitt Romney did not use the same exact verbatim language, so it is apparently time to turn off any logic within your brain and accuse him of changing his story. Way to go ABC.
This article, however, asks if there is any contradiction. Romney liked Tsongas better than Clinton, and didn't think that he would win over Bush. No contradiction.
But ABC twists Romney's words and they accuse him of some Machiavellian scheme to win the election for Bush, by forcing Tongas into the race. Did Romney change his story, or is ABC just trying to make something out of nothing?
Here is a comparison. Why do you love your wife? One day you say, "she is pretty." Someone asks you the next day, "She is nice." To which ABC responds, "Oh! Your a flip-flopper! You changed your story! One day you say that you are physically attracted to her, the next day you say that it is because of the nice things she does for you? It it because you are a misogynist or because you like her slave labor? Which is it?!" It is the same exact thing with Romney. One day he explained that Paul was a Social Conservative. The next day he explained how he didn't think Paul would win Bush anyways.
We knew that Dan Rather was guilty of Document-gate, but who from CBS put out this hit piece? Don't you like how no one puts their name and takes responsibility? By the way, I've posted a couple of responses, but they do not approve anything that doesn't agree with the DNC party line.
Anyways, here is my analysis of the flip-flopper charge, and here is the analysis of the flip-flopper charge directly as it applies to Romney over voting for Paul Tsongas in the primary and Bush in the General Election.
Please tell me what you think.
~ Mike
PS: MMM has a great piece over here.
