Be vewy, vewy quiet…; Romney changes hunting story (again)

April 5, 2007 – 9:36 pm

Mitt Romney, changed his story on hunting … again. Here’s where he started:

Mitt Romney said he had hunted "pretty much all his life." Then the press asked his staff to confirm … and he had hunted only twice (and once at a fundraiser no less!).

Now Romney has clarified. He hunts "varmints":

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, said during a fundraising stop Thursday that he had also hunted smaller animals in Utah.

"I’m not a big-game hunter. I’ve made that very clear," he said. "I’ve always been a rodent and rabbit hunter. Small varmints, if you will. I began when I was 15 or so, and I have hunted those kinds of varmints since then. More than two times."

Three times? Wabbits? Not mousetraps?

As I said when his hunting problem emerged, it reminds me of his gun problem. He couldn’t figure out whether he owned a gun or not:

So Romney went from having a gun, to not having a gun, to having two guns. Except they are his son’s guns. At (one of) their vacation homes in Utah. That’s "his" gun.

The issue is, of course, not really about whether he has hunted or has a gun or not. The issue is that he has so many stories about basic facts like whether he has hunted, whether he owns a gun, or what his favorite movie is. These shouldn’t be hard. These don’t even need to be poll-tested. He can’t figure out an answer to these questions… And he wants to run a country?

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Romney on guns: More Mitt-representations

April 4, 2007 – 3:40 pm

Mitt Romney has a problem with gun owners, and it is that he is like John Kerry.

John Kerry referred to his "trusty shotgun", which was actually a weapon he had voted to ban. This was seen as fabricated, and it was rightly mocked in the righty blogs.

Mitt Romney has a similar problem, his image on guns is a total Mitt-representation. He told Glenn and Helen (via the Boston Globe):

The Glenn and Helen Show," that he hopes states would continue to ease regulations on gun owners, and he expressed enthusiasm for guns and hunting. "I have a gun of my own. I go hunting myself. I’m a member of the NRA and believe firmly in the right to bear arms

Slowly those statements have been exploded. First, he didn’t really own a gun, from the same Boston Globe story:

Asked by reporters at the gun show Friday whether he personally owned the gun, Romney said he did not. He said one of his sons, Josh, keeps two guns at the family vacation home in Utah, and he uses them "from time to time."

So Romney went from having a gun, to not having a gun, to having two guns. Except they are his son’s. At (one of) their vacation homes in Utah. That’s "his" gun.

Next the point about hunting. Romney "fondly" describes two hunting experiences:

Romney also described himself as a sportsman who learned to shoot as a boy rabbit hunting in Idaho with a .22 rifle. … He fondly recalled shooting quail last year at a Republican Governors Association event in Georgia.

Now the AP reports that those are the only two hunting experiences he has had in his whole life:

Yet the former Massachusetts governor’s hunting experience is limited to two trips at the bookends of his 60 years: as a 15-year-old, when he hunted rabbits with his cousins on a ranch in Idaho, and last year, when he shot quail on a fenced game preserve in Georgia.

Then the NRA thing came out. Turns out Romney is a life member of the NRA… except that he joined in August. This was well lampooned today in Doonesbury:


And he says that he "firmly believes in the right to bear arms… sort of, again the Boston Globe story:

Romney says he still backs the ban on assault weapons, but he won’t say whether he stands by the Brady Bill. And after the gun show tour, his campaign declined to say whether he would still describe himself as a supporter of tough gun laws.

You see, Mitt Romney’s problem isn’t that he is a flip-flopper, although that is true. It is that almost everything that he says about base issues in the Republican Party is a Mitt-representation. And gun activists, a pretty committed bunch, just aren’t going to buy it.

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