GOP Nominee
Former Candidates
I have written repeatedly on Willard Mitt Romney’s serial flip-flops. Mitt is the born-again supply-sider who today swears he never raised taxes, even though he increased taxes and fees $983 million as Massachusetts governor. He is 2008’s stalwart defender of traditional values and man-woman marriage who, in 2002, distributed a hot-pink flyer among Boston’s gay community that read: “Mitt and Kerry Wish You A Great Pride Weekend! All citizens deserve equal rights, regardless of their sexual preference.” (Kerry Healey was the GOP nominee for lieutenant governor.) Romney is the Second Amendment enthusiast who brags about being a life-member of the National Rifle Association - “life” beginning in August 2006 - who said in 1994, “I don’t line up with the NRA.”
Pick nearly any topic, and you will find the new and old Romneys as far apart as two pugilists in opposite corners of a boxing ring, ready to knock each other’s lights out.
But nothing prepared me for Romney’s most amazing flip flop of all. Somehow, I missed it, despite months of researching his bipolar record.
During CNN’s January 30 debate from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Romney said, “one of the two great regrets I have in life is I didn’t serve in the military. I’d love to have.” This echoes what he told the Boston Globe last June 24. “I longed in many respects to actually be in Vietnam and be representing our country there and in some ways it was frustrating not to feel like I was there as part of the troops that were fighting in Vietnam.”
Now, as works with almost any subject, search Google or Nexis for “Romney” and “Vietnam” and any date before 2004, when he got serious about pursuing the 2008 GOP nomination.
Voila! There it is, from May 2, 1994. “I was not planning on signing up for the military. It was not my desire to go off and serve in Vietnam,” Romney told the Boston Herald.
This flip flop is much more revealing and far more disturbing than the rest.
It is bad enough to reverse course 180 degrees on public-policy matters such as taxes, gay rights, guns, abortion, immigration, the minimum wage, Ronald Reagan’s legacy, or any of the other topics on which the old and new Romneys clobber each other. At least these are political issues on which, at best, new information and thinking can justify changed views or, at worst, electoral mathematics can explain abandoning one position for another.
But for Romney to somersault on something so personal - his own non-involvement in the Vietnam War - makes one wonder if Romney is any different from an exterior set on a Hollywood back lot: Clean and pretty in the front and all flat, plywood planks in the back.
Today’s Romney says, more or less, “Too bad I was not part of a military quagmire that tragically cost the lives of 50,000 GIs.” Yesterday’s Romney said, more or less, “How fortunate I was not to be part of a military quagmire that tragically cost the lives of 50,000 GIs.”
Conveniently enough, today’s position plays well in a GOP primary filled with hawkish voters, and now led by the Vietnam War hero, Senator John McCain (R – Arizona). Romney’s 1994 comments more snugly suited Massachusetts - a liberal, Democrat-dominated state where such dovish remarks would have gone down well.
If Romney cynically shifted from his old position to his new one on Vietnam service, he is even more cold and calculating than previously thought.
And if he sincerely went from saying in 1994 that he had not desired to go to Vietnam to 2007’s longing to have been there, one wonders if there is anything at Romney’s core but breeze and tumbleweeds.
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New York commentator Deroy Murdock is a columnist with the Scripps Howard News Service and a media fellow with the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University.
February 4th, 2008 at 11:55 am
Well, it would be disturbing if not entirely anticipated as Mitt’s standard positioneering.
The guy’s coiffed mane is firmer than his spine.
February 4th, 2008 at 11:56 am
I love how we need to get comments from 1994, yet McCain continues to get a free ride for his recent flip-flopped actions.
February 4th, 2008 at 11:57 am
Okay - who called predicted the Deroy hit piece about 2 hours ago?
This is ridiculous.
I think now that Deroy’s guy is no longer in this race this sort of rubbish in unnecessary unless he wants to start blogging on here and defending his claims.
When will the Hugh Hewitt McCain hit piece be posted, or maybe one from Ann Coulter?
February 4th, 2008 at 11:58 am
Deroy is a moderate Republican hack who revels in the prospects of a conservative movement defeat.
I don’t think his voice has been stronger than Laura Ingrahams today. I expect Rush and Hannity to trumpet the movement to fight rather than give in tomorrow.
FIGHT!!!
February 4th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Nice try Deroy. Did anyone notice that CNN has now updated the delegate count since maine and it is McCain 97, Romney 92. That is great!
February 4th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
How is this a flip-flop exactly? Sorry, but this is a lame attack. Romney has flip-flopped on a number of issues for sure, but this is dumb. I voted for Bush in 2000 over McCain. I now regret that I didn’t vote for McCain the first time around. But does that make me a flip-flopper too. In a cold and calculating manner?? C’mon McCainians, let’s not get retarded here and start making up stuff. We can win by keeping it positive and the focus on McCain, not by inventing papadas like this.
February 4th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Mitt was asked about this “flip-flop” and answered it masterfully. Unfortunately, I can’t find his answer. However, I remember he answered this charge nicely when it came up earlier.
February 4th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
*Yawn*
Another Deroy hit piece.
Has he ever written a piece that was primarily supportive of his candidate?
February 4th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
This is pretty pathetic, mostly because it seems to me a matter of tense, as in the present tense. Romney wasn’t asked what his greatest regret was in 1994 when it obviously was not serving in Vietnam. Today, given that we are in Iraq and Afghanistan it perfectly logical that someone aspiring to be CIC would like to have military service. If anything this may have been one of Romney’s most candid moments.
February 4th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Since when does military service equate going to vietnam? I wouldn’t mind serving the military if I didn’t have to go to war. Sue me, but that’s how a lot of Americans feel.
February 4th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Deroy, it’s too bad this isn’t printed so I wouldn’t have to buy toilet paper anymore…
February 4th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
You mean this is a good sign of resolve from someone running to become the Commander in Chief of all our armed forces when we have troops in combat?
February 4th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Mitt’s daddy probably wouldn’t let him go get brainwashed in Viet Nam. It’s a good thing his five sons are serving their country by…wait…never mind.
February 4th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
“regret” is the key word here. Deroy…???
February 4th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Deroy is a liar.
In every one of his front-page hit pieces, he “ups” the amount Romney raised fees. He’ll be breaking $1 billion before this primary is done.
February 4th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Deroy, had you actually watched comments on this site, you’d know that we’ve been over this exact topic before. Here are the full quotes from the Boston Herald and the Boston Globe respectively:
and the second:
Suddenly it’s not such a big deal when you examine the quotes in full. It’s clear that Romney felt that on the one hand, he should serve in the military (and later in life admits that not serving was his greatest regret), but on the other hand, at the time he had a new wife and baby and his own father was running for president and thought Vietnam was becoming a quagmire, therefore, it is easy to see why Romney would not want to go there to serve in a loosing war.
Deroy Murdock, shame on you for trying to make a controversy where there is none. The fact that Mitt didn’t serve may be an issue to some people, but trying to twist it into a flip is disingenuous.
February 4th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Rush Limbaugh is tearing McCain apart:
http://bayradio.com:8000/ksfo
February 4th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Hobie’s got it right. The actual meaning of the word “regret” seems to have been lost on Deroy.
February 4th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
“Back in 1994 you said ‘I supported the Brady Bill and a ban on assault weapons. That’s not gonna make me the hero of the NRA. But then I don’t line up with the NRA.’ And now you’re a member of the NRA,’” Wallace remarks.
“Well, we still don’t line up 100 percent,” Romney says.
“I know, but you’re a member of the NRA?” Wallace points out.
“I believe in the right of people to bear arms,” Romney says. “And support the work that the NRA is doing to protect the second amendment, but do we line up 100 percent on everything? Of course not.”
Deroy is a hack.
February 4th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Deroy - go climb back under the rock.
Why are you so worried that you feel you need to manufacture a hit piece? McCain has this thing sewn up, right? Chill bud.
February 4th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Not a flop!!!
It’s only a flip!!!
It’s only a flip!!!
Not a flop!!!
It could only be a “flip-flop” if Romney once again did not want to serve in the military.
Maybe he could “see” himself serving looking back now, but couldn’t “see” himself back then?!?
Bishop Romney can see a stump in California even if there are no cameras around… I have the pictures to prove it!!!!!!!
Just like Bishop Romney can “see” himself being pro-life at a Planned Parenthood fundraiser… he is a Bishop after all!
Do not question him with these attacks or I will vote for Hillary!
February 4th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
“Gov. Romney has pushed to cut taxes at every opportunity, even in the face of the big-government Democratic legislature in Taxachusetts. As governor, he worked to enact property tax relief for seniors, tax relief for disabled veterans, sales tax holidays and investment tax credits. He turned back the liberal Massachusetts Legislature’s attempt to enact a retroactive tax increase on capital gains and instead sent a $250 million tax refund to the people of Massachusetts.”
“Gov. Romney has a wide-ranging plan to lower federal taxes. He will make the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts – the cuts that Sen. McCain opposed – permanent, and roll back tax rates further for all American taxpayers. He will use the tax code to encourage middle-class families to save for the future and help pay for medical care. He will end the death tax and lower corporate tax rates to help American companies compete in the world economy – which will lead to more jobs here in America.
We KNOW Mitt cut taxes, but what tax did he raise you hack/liar Deroy?
February 4th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
I guess McCain is picking up the tab for Deroy’s “columns”, now that Rudy is out of the race ..
February 4th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Everybody with a brain knows Romney didn’t change on gay rights hack/liar Deroy. He still supports non-discrimination in the work place, and still doesn’t support “gay marriage”.
February 4th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Ha! I predicted on an earlier thread that we were due for a Deroy hit piece.
February 4th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Liar, liar pants on fire… Bishop Romney is our God!
It it was not for that Devil Huckabee (Jesus’ brother), Mitty would have all this pesky primaries in his mighty hands! Bow before your Lord.
Tad and his four brothers served their country [club]… isn’t that enough for Romney to “see” himself serving in Nam?
McCain hates gooks! Romney hates them more! (That is, if “gooks” come from Arkansas.)
February 4th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Deroy is SUCH a liar, this isn’t even a new issue. I addressed this on another site on 2007/09/10.
February 4th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
It’s shameful to post Deroy Murdock’s lies here. It’s shameful to be supported by Deroy Murdock.
February 4th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
I love how Deroy has to put all his credentials at the bottom of his posts.
Clearly they can’t stand on their own so he hopes that posting his resume at the bottom will some how add credibility to this rubbish.
February 4th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Anyone can lie, why does Deroy Murdock have a job…oh, New York commentator-never mind.
February 4th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Here is a REAL flip flop for you McCainiacs
just a couple years later, McCain, while pondering a future in politics, met Cindy Hensley, an attractive 25-year-old woman from a very wealthy politically-connected Arizona family. While still married to Carol, McCain began an adulterous relationship with Cindy. He married Cindy in May 1980 — just a month after dumping his crippled wife and securing a divorce.
He is such a Hero
February 4th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
No romney fan would post hugh hewitt’s pieces on the front page, why on earth would we post deroy murdocks?
February 4th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
That is really a big stretch…I can find more flip FLOPS in McCain in 2007 and that are actually pertinent and VERY GRAVE. This post is fringe ridiculous. Doesn’t even make sense…especially when you are taking snipets of conversations and trying to piece them together to make it scewed.
Even with your attempt - it is really just that - an attempt - and very obviously a stretch.
YAWN.
February 4th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
…………….
Come On……Everyone…….
WE ALL KNOW…..Mitt raised TAXES……
OVER 500 TIMES…..
TOTALLING over 900 BILLION….GAZILLION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Get your numbers straight!!!
(983 million…..Hah….)
………………
February 4th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
And in the process misses the real reason why so many conservatives are getting on the Mitt
Train…the fact is…THIS IS HIS BIGGEST REGRET IN LIFE! Hello, unlike nearly every other candidate,
he has no other regrets(er, skeletons) hanging around to cast doubt upon his character. The fact
that Murdock has to dig up this lame attempt at a flip speaks GARGANTUAN volumes about who Mitt
Romney really is! HE IS THE MAN!
February 4th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
#31 - THANK YOU!! What kind of POW comes home and does THAT?!?!?
We don’t need THAT kind of hero as our President. Its worse than the whole Monica Lewinsky deal!
February 4th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Where did this Tim character come from, and how do we get him to go back to that place?
February 4th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
If Rhett got banned from race42008 for his behavior, it makes me wonder why Tim is still here
February 4th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
This is like a speed scrabble game for Ant-Romney people: who can take the most obscure Romney comments and twist them to make them look like a flip-flop. It’s like when you play scrabble with the guy next door and he spells “xpdefytogAgasdg”. You patiently try to tell him its not a word, and all he can say is, “it really is a word because I say so, and look how many points it is worth.”
February 4th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Wow….Deroy. A new low. desperation eh?
February 4th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Kavon,
Read Tim’s posts. Not only are they offensive, but also half of them do not pertain to politics. Is there any way you could take him off please.
February 4th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
How about we match Deroy’s articles with equally creditable articles?
February 4th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
[...] was for it before he was against it: During CNN’s January 30 debate from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Romney said, “one [...]
February 4th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Deroy is a fool. This is the worst piece I’ve read in a long time. Last semester I had NO DESIRE to pay my tuition, so I didn’t….. Now I regret not having paid it because my classes have been dropped. IS THIS A FLIP FLOP????? ….NO! I don;t care if you are a Romney fan or not, it is easy to debunk this false accusation. Give Deroy a new job at the New York times, this is just bad journalism.
February 4th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
There is nothing wrong with mitt fighting for gay rights. He says “Gay people should not have rights taken away from them for being gay” . I read to say we shouldnt put gays in jail for being gay, allow them to own property, etc. What is wrong with that? dont we all agree on that? and has mitt somehow flipped from that?
February 4th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
“it’s too bad this isn’t printed so I wouldn’t have to buy toilet paper anymore…”
lol!
February 4th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Ohmigosh the person that wrote this is so retarded. Read it yourself, very carefully. Just ’cause you proclaim it a flip-flop does not make it so. Vote for McCain, he’s just like you.
February 4th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Deroy is a hack and will twist anything to attack Mitt, I can’t take anything serious that he writes about Mitt, he loses all credibility on that topic, whether he is accurate or not.
February 4th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Question, stemming from post #10,
I have served in the military for 6 years, through that entire time I was stationed at Fort Meade, MD, I never ever came close to getting deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan (even though I wanted to, I must be crazy). So according to Deroy’s logic, if I run for Pres in 25 years, am I disqualified because I never served in Iraq or Afghanistan?
What a joke.
February 4th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Why should we be surprised. Classic Mitt!
February 4th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Go away Deroy. Your boy got stommped! You are quite possibly the biggest hack I have ever read.
February 5th, 2008 at 3:33 am
I am frustrated with everyone trying to get their finger into the pie. I know this isn’t related, but it makes me mad that McCain has received the most lobbyists’ money in the Presidential race.
I think I’ll vote for Romney, nobody can buy that guy. And besides he has skills.
McCain, he’s got………… um………. let’s see………… oh yeah, he has 25 years in the senate, tons of favors due, and has passed no significant legislation. Additionally, the guy has been consulting on military committees for 25 years - HE IS PART OF THE PROBLEM and hasn’t kept us safe.
Check out he McCain Hillary video by clicking on my name.
February 5th, 2008 at 9:53 am
[...] and conservative (not a great candidate, but undeserving of opprobrium from the likes of a man who cannot decide whether he ever wanted to serve in the military): Bob Dole. A few have kept their heads, but not [...]