It has turned out that Mitt Romney’s Meet the Press appearance appeared decent at the time, but mistakes seem to be coming out of the woodwork. Race 4 2008 has one write-up.
First, there was Romney’s lie about the NRA endorsement. He claimed that he had received it in 2002. He hadn’t. Just made it up.
Second, he claimed that "…every piece of legislation which came to my desk in the coming years as a Governor, I came down on the side of preserving the sanctity of life." Fred Thompson’s campaign sent out a press release basically blowing that up.
Third, Jen Rubin at the Spectator drills down and finds Romney’s statements on taxes totally lacking. Key quotes:
On the subject of fees and taxes a pre-The Note Rick Klein reported in 2003: "A survey of states grappling with spending crises has found that Massachusetts imposed more fee hikes than any other state in the nation this year - at least $500 million. … ‘These are just indiscriminate, broad-based fee increases because of a reluctance to raise taxes,’ said Michael J. Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. ‘It’s been disingenuous to say there’s no new taxes, in the sense that there’s very little connection to the fee increases and the cost of services that the fees are supposed to represent.’" Groups like Citizens for Limited Taxation at the time were similarly suspicion about the distinction.
And fourth, Romney "I was an independent in the time of Reagan/Bush" and "I voted for Paul Tsongas" said:
OK, Tim, let’s go back and let’s, let’s–I’m going to reject the premise, to begin with because, when I ran against Ted Kennedy, I realized the shot was a long shot, to beat Ted Kennedy in Massachusetts. But I was tired of his liberal policies. And as you’ll recall, I fought for the death penalty, I said secure the borders, I said at the same time we’re going to completely redo our welfare system and get rid of the old welfare system. I ran as a Republican and a conservative. And when I ran for governor in Massachusetts, you were there. First question you asked me in the debate, "Tell me about the death penalty." I was for the death penalty. I was for English immersion in our schools. I said, I said…
Yeah. Whatever dude. Again, Jen Rubin whips out the quotes:
“I Am A Fiscal Conservative And A Social Moderate.” (2002)“I Was An Independent During The Time Of Reagan-Bush. I’m Not Trying To Return To Reagan-Bush.” (1994)
"I don’t know that the world is pining for a progressive-on-social-issues governor of Massachusetts." (2002)
Then there’s my personal favorite "my R doesn’t so much stand for Republican as Reform."
I just can’t wait for the video mashup of the 2007 statements against his actual record.
