Rick Santorum stunned Mitt Romney by winning three-of-three contests on February 7, 2012, one in Missouri considered a "beauty contest", one in Minnesota and then the surprise of the night, Santorum beat Romney in Colorado where all polling and expectations were given to Romney for the win.By the next morning, headlines across the country trumpeted the Santorum wins, with some showing Mitt Romney turned his money machine and his sights toward Santorum, giving the wink wink, nod nod, to his supporters that it was time to target Rick Santorum as he targeted Newt Gingrich in Florida where Romney and pro-Romney superPAC's outspent Gingrich in ads by 5-to-1 with 99 percent of those ads being negative.
Example of yesterday's headlines "CNN with "TRENDING: Romney will take tougher approach to Santorum, adviser says," and WSJ with "Front-Runner Is Targeting Santorum."
"He Who Lives in a Glass House Shouldn't Throw Stones at Others"--- English Proverb
Via CNN's Political Ticker:
"In this race, I'm the only guy that hasn't spent time in Washington," he told reporters on an airport tarmac in Atlanta. "And Senator Santorum and Speaker Gingrich, they are the very Republicans who acted like Democrats. And when Republicans act like Democrats, they lose."
The proof, he said, was evident in both men's records........
Republicans acting like Democrats and looking at past records.
Yes, he went there. Really!!!
There is a reason for the whole anti-Romney movement, where every state Romney wins, the Republican turnout in that state has shown massive decreases in turnout from the 2008 GOP primaries. A reason why a Romney nomination kills conservative enthusiasm.
That reason is Romney's past record and Romney's previous Democratic positions, acting like a Democrat.
So we go to the "proof" of looking at Romney's "past record" when Romney's record showed he, himself, continually "acted like Democrats." (All Romney's terminology and phrasing)
The partial list below includes, Romney care individual mandate; Gun Control laws; Abortion; Tax Increases under Romney in Mass., and Spending Increases under Romney in Mass.
RomneyCare/Obamacare
Obamacare aka Patient Care Act Affordable Protection Act is the single most controversial piece of legislation passed by a Democratically controlled House of Representatives (when Dems still controlled it), a Democratically controlled Senate, and signed by a Democrat President, Barack Obama.
Jonathan Gruber, an MIT economist who advised the Romney administration on health care and who attended five meetings at the Obama White House in 2009, including the meeting with the president, states "They really wanted to know how we can take that same approach we used in Massachusetts and turn that into a national model." (Source- MSNBC titled "White House used Mitt Romney health-care law as blueprint for federal law)
In 2011 the Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments on the constitutionality of parts of the Obamacare bill, specifically the individual mandate which would force the purchase of health insurance or be fined a penalty for not doing so.
67 percent of the public holds an unfavorable view of the individual mandate and 54 percent believe the Supreme Court should find it unconstitutional. (Source- Kaiser Health Tracking Poll)
Back to Mr. Gruber, who advised both Romney on Romneycare and Obama on Obamacare, in an exclusive interview with Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin, made three things abundantly clear;1) Romney championed the individual mandate, overriding concerns about personal freedom;
2) the plan today is pretty much the same as what Romney signed into law;
3) without it in all likelihood we wouldn’t have ObamaCare today.
It is “sad,” says MIT professor Jonathan Gruber, that presidential candidate Mitt Romney is running away from his Massachusetts health care plan, a plan that Gruber says “gave birth to one of the greatest pieces of social legislation in our history,” namely President Obama’s 2010 health-care reform legislation. Aside from Romney, Gruber is the man most responsible for the Massachusetts plan. And given how important the debate is over the ‘Cares — RomneyCare and ObamaCare, as they’re often dubbed — I decided to go to the man who perhaps knows more than anyone about the development of both.
Romney continues to maintain his Democratic support for Romneycare.
Abortion
Romney in 2002- "I will preserve and protect a woman’s right to choose and have devoted and dedicated to honor my word in that regard. I will not change any provision of Mass Pro-choice laws."(video)In 2007, as Romney ran as a GOP presidential candidate but failed to obtain the nomination in the end, losing to John McCain, in the GOP Iowa Straw Poll debate , Aug 5, 2007, called his Democratic position on abortion, his "greatest mistake" (Source- Issues2000.org)
Romney's record also included, via Boston Globe review of 1994 campaign issues , Mar 21, 2002, that Mitt Romney; Favored basic Roe v. Wade abortion rights, though would not endorse a specific version of the Freedom of Choice Act, which would codify those court-established rights as federal law; Said he would leave the matter of Medicaid funding for abortion to individual states and Endorsed legalization of RU-486, the abortion-inducing drug. (Source- Issues2000.org)
Abortion is yet another issue where Romney's position was a Democratic position until he decided to run as a Republican candidate.
Gun Laws
Romney in 2002- "We do have tough guns laws in Mass. I support them. I won’t chip away them. I believe they help protect us and provide for our safety."(video)
The Democratic position, expressed by Barack Obama: "Just because you have an individual right to bear arms does not mean that the state or local government can’t constrain the exercise of that right…”(video)
In 1994, Romney Backed Brady Bill. “He said he will take stands that put him at odds with some traditional ultra-conservative groups, and cited his support for the assault rifle ban and the Brady gun control law. ‘That’s not going to make me the hero of the NRA,’ he said. ‘I don’t line up with a lot of special interest groups.’”
(Source- Andrew Miga, “Mitt Rejects Right-Wing Aid,” Boston Herald, 9/23/94)
A Democratic position until 2008, yes, when he was running as a "Republican" GOP candidate for presidency, Mitt claimed he had a "Lifelong" devotion to hunting," which he clarified in 2010 as having meant hunting "small varmints." (Source- Issues2000.org)
Spending
Democrats are known for their as Tax and spend policies and while Romney talks a good Republican talking point about needing to spend less, using his own criteria of "proof" by examining his own "record," it shows that under his leadership as Governor in Massachusetts, state spending increased by more than 24 percent in three years. ($5 billion)
Taxes
In the second GOP debate in 2007, Romney claimed he did not raise taxes, which was immediately fact checked and Fact Check.org found that Romney failed to note that he increased government fees by hundreds of millions of dollars and shifted some of the state tax burden to the local level.
TOTAL of all higher fees and taxes proposed by Gov. Mitt Romney and which became law was approximately $740.5 million annually.
Looks like a Democratic tax and spend record to me, you decide.
Andrew Kaczynski over at Buzzfeed has put together the top 50 Hits From John McCain's Giant Mitt Romney Opposition File from 2008. Take a look.
The bottom line here, using Mitt Romney's own assertions and standards, Romney is a "Republican who acted like a Democrat" as is "evident" in his own record and to throw his own words right back at him "And when Republicans act like Democrats, they lose."-- Mitt Romney, 2012
Romney can retool his message til the cows come home, but he cannot retool his record.
I repeat for the record- "He Who Lives in a Glass House Shouldn't Throw Stones at Others"
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