Mitt Romney failed to buy the presidential nomination, so now he has his hopes set on becoming McCain's Vice-President.
So the news last week that Romney was giving up any chance of recouping the $45 million he loaned his presidential campaign immediately raised the question: What does the cautious, but shrewd, dealmaker think he's going to get for this money?
The answer, apparently, is his selection as John McCain's running mate.
Romney's decision to formally reclassify his loans as contributions - a seemingly small bureaucratic gesture - removes a deceptively large obstacle to his vice presidential nomination. Had he become McCain's veep without giving up hope of retrieving the cash, Romney might have wasted a lot of time at fund-raisers trying to retire his personal debt. McCain, obviously, would prefer a vice president who's free to do other things and willing to use his fund-raising time to help the party. So Romney is signaling to McCain that he's willing to join the ticket free and clear.
Romney may have a problem according to OneNewsNow, a division of the American Family News Network, a Christian news service.
Twenty-six leaders of national and state conservative groups have signed a letter addressed to Senator McCain (R-Arizona) that declares "the unvarnished facts of Mitt Romney's record as governor of Massachusetts make him utterly unacceptable as a vice-presidential running mate."
The group that opposes Romney is the Government Is Not God PAC, and their letter to McCain was published in a full-page ad in the Daily Courier of Prescott, Arizona, the same day the campaign held a rally in the city. The group believes Romney is trying to "get in through the back door."
Signers of the letter to McCain include former Romney backer and Free Congress Foundation president Paul Weyrich, Sandy Rios of the Culture Campaign, and Matt Barber of Concerned Women for America. They argue Romney's recent "conversion" to conservative and pro-life principles is "not credible," and that his record on such issues when he was governor conflicts with the values of social conservatives.
Nobody, says Murray, knows what Romney's "real" positions are. "He was pro-life, then ... when he ran for governor of Massachusetts ... all of a sudden he was pro-choice; and then when he ran for president, he's pro-life again," he says. "He has held different positions on the whole issue of gay marriage and gay unions and homosexuality. He continually talks about being a fiscal conservative, yet he left Massachusetts in a total mess."
If the PAC is concerned about Romney's flip-flops, they need to reconsider their support for John McCain too. He was fairly consistent for the quarter-century he was in Congress, but since deciding to run for president, he's abandoned his position on more than five dozen issues for political gain. |
