What do you think of Romney's speaking style?

[Dr.House]

How is that statement false? It's impossible to want to ban abortion and allow it at the same time.

I explained it already... I know you are slow, but you'll have to keep up....

 

[Polk]

How is that statement false? It's impossible to want to ban abortion and allow it at the same time.

I explained it already... I know you are slow, but you'll have to keep up....

His current position is that he wants to ban it, with certain exceptions. That's not the same as allowing it.

 

[Dr.House]

How is that statement false? It's impossible to want to ban abortion and allow it at the same time.

I explained it already... I know you are slow, but you'll have to keep up....

His current position is that he wants to ban it, with certain exceptions. That's not the same as allowing it.

I'm not talking about Romney...

I'm talking about your statement alone...

 

[Katiegrrl0]

Romney looks uncomfortable almost as if he is trying to hard.

 

[Polk]

My statement operates the same way. You can't ban something and allow (in the legal sense) it at the same time.

 

[Dr.House]

My statement operates the same way. You can't ban something and allow (in the legal sense) it at the same time.

There was no mention of "banning" in your statement...

Your statement alone is false...

 

[Polk]

My statement operates the same way. You can't ban something and allow (in the legal sense) it at the same time.

There was no mention of "banning" in your statement...

Your statement alone is false...

That's what "pro-life" means. That you want to ban abortion.

 

[Dr.House]

My statement operates the same way. You can't ban something and allow (in the legal sense) it at the same time.

There was no mention of "banning" in your statement...

Your statement alone is false...

That's what "pro-life" means. That you want to ban abortion.

Your definition, perhaps...

I explained how not everyone lives in your black & white world....

Now run along, you bore me....

 

[kwc57]

My statement operates the same way. You can't ban something and allow (in the legal sense) it at the same time.

There was no mention of "banning" in your statement...

Your statement alone is false...

That's what "pro-life" means. That you want to ban abortion.

Soooooo, "pro-abortion" means you want to force everyone to have an abortion? See how that works?

 

[Valerie]

The writer of this piece takes an anti-Romney tack but it has a lot of good info... I've taken the time to highlight some of it here but there are many quotes and links that I don't have time to go through right now...

The real story of Romney’s conversion—a series of tentative, equivocal, and confused shifts, accompanied by a constant rewriting of his past—paints a more accurate picture of who he is. Romney has complex views and a talent for framing them either way, depending on his audience. He values truth, so he makes sure there’s an element of it in everything he says. He can’t stand to break his promises, so he reinterprets them.


...

Romney began to think about running against Sen. Ted Kennedy. Romney approached the idea as he had always approached things: with a businessman’s prudence. He hired Republican pollster Dick Wirthlin to survey the Massachusetts electorate and identify challenges Romney might face. Scott, a friend of the Romney family, reports in his book that Wirthlin came back with tough news: No pro-life candidate could win statewide office in Massachusetts.


Until this moment, Romney hadn’t taken a public position on abortion. He had pro-life experience as a Mormon leader and counselor. He had pro-choice experience as the relative of a woman who had died from illegal abortion. In general, he respected women, and he didn’t like government telling people what to do.

Within the Romney family, his mother had preached the separation of religious practice from public policy.

Mormons, having suffered persecution at the hands of other Christians, feared the injection of sectarian faith into politics.

The LDS church also had a doctrine of free agency that distinguished the rightness of choices, such as whether to drink alcohol, from the freedom to make those choices.



Above all, abortion wasn’t Romney’s issue. He was a CEO interested in management and finance. His comments throughout the 1994 campaign reflected ignorance about RU486, morning-after pills, and parental consent laws, which in those days were major topics in the abortion debate. Romney was smart enough to learn about these issues if he had wanted to. He just didn’t care that much.


Romney could have framed his complex feelings about abortion either way. Wirthlin’s poll said that if he ran as a pro-lifer, he’d lose. It would be simplistic to say that the poll dictated Romney’s decision. But we know that he used the poll to influence the most important pro-life organization he had to appease at the time: the elders of the LDS

...



If he didn’t frame his position as pro-choice, he’d lose. Many of the church leaders were unhappy with Romney’s formulation. But if they wanted him in the Senate, this was the best they were going to get.

Scott was present when Romney talked about the meetings after he returned to Boston. Judy Dushku, a Mormon feminist, says she heard a similar account from Romney in 1994:


I went to his office and I congratulated him on taking a pro-choice position. And his response was—Well they told me in Salt Lake City I could take this position, and in fact I probably had to in order to win in a liberal state like Massachusetts. …


I said, Mitt, it doesn’t make me happy to hear that. What you’re suggesting is that you’re not genuinely pro-choice. It’s a position of convenience. He said—Oh no, I actually had an aunt who died of a botched abortion. So I have some positive feelings about choice, but basically I know that I have to take that position.


If you don’t think Romney would say such a calculated thing, look at this video. It shows Romney on The O’Reilly Factor on Dec. 19, 2011, explaining how he came to his pro-choice position.


He tells Bill O’Reilly: “I thought, ‘Well, I can say and can understand the idea of leaving the law the way it is. The Supreme Court has made its decision. I'm just going to say I will support the law and preserve the law as it exists.’ ”
Notice the language: I can say … I’m just going to say. This isn’t a man talking about what he believes. It’s a man talking about framing a public posture under constraint.


...



Mitt Romney’s abortion record: flip-flop or conversion? - Slate Magazine

I have no problem with Mitt's history of properly framing his public posture on this issue. I think calling him a LIAR over it is disingenuous... Or that being personally pro-life means he wants to BAN abortion. I suppose some would prefer a Santorum type of leader who doesn't know how to properly separate what he believes from what is the appropriate role of Government on this issue...

 

[Sallow]

He speaks like a CEO when he knows what he's talking about (business) and a robot the rest of the time.

Oh, dear Mr. Sallow, I have to hand it to ya, you do love your party. Unfortunately, they don't call it the Executive Branch for advertising purposes.

America needs an Executive. We're already organized to provide for the common defense, which we won't have if we leave the smooth talker who hates our allies as evidenced by his insults against Britain his first month in office, and shows mercy to bullies and cowards. I'm sorry, Obama has fulfilled Peter's Principle to the max.

We're going to do our best to repair his bad-hair carcrash, I mean his very bad Karma.

If only you'd take your good looks and charisma to the people, Mr. Sallow. You're a good sort, but unfortunately, nobody can make a silk purse out of a sow's ear that President Obama has proven himself to be. *sigh*

Calling them as I sees them Ms. Becki. I've heard Romney articulate things about healthcare and corporations that were detailed, nuanced and very intelligent. When he starts talking about social policy, foreign affairs and a plethora of other issues..he falls flat.

 

[Dick Tuck]

He's had two different positions on that issue. Pretty hard to be pro-choice and pro-life at the same time.

WOW! Someone changed their mind. In human history, that has almost never happened. Why the likelyhood of any individual ever changing their mind on any given topic is something like 4 billion trillion to 1.

Either that, or he's a man with no core values, who will shift his position in a heart beat, because he's a political opportunist. At least that's what the right wing has been saying about him throughout the primary process.

 

[Dick Tuck]

There was no mention of "banning" in your statement...

Your statement alone is false...

That's what "pro-life" means. That you want to ban abortion.

Soooooo, "pro-abortion" means you want to force everyone to have an abortion? See how that works?

I don't know anyone who's pro-abortion. I know plenty of people who are pro-choice.

We both know the truth. Pro-life means you don't want anyone to have an abortion. Pro-choice means you want the individual to make the decision, and not the state.

 

[NYcarbineer]

There was no mention of "banning" in your statement...

Your statement alone is false...

That's what "pro-life" means. That you want to ban abortion.

Soooooo, "pro-abortion" means you want to force everyone to have an abortion? See how that works?

How many people do you know who simultaneously refer to themselves as pro-life and pro-choice?

 

[NYcarbineer]

Quotes without context are not a true representation of position...

If you have the context, I'd be willing to read it...

Romney also said he's been pro-choice since his mother ran for Senate in 1970, when he was debating Ted Kennedy. Face it, the guy was pro-choice his whole career until he decided to run for the nomination. Even he admits he was pro-choice at the time.

So, does that mean you don't have any context on those particular quotes?

...

"I respect and will protect a woman's right to choose. This choice is a deeply personal one.”
”Women should be free to choose based on their own beliefs, not mine and not the government's."

What sort of 'context' could possibly make those quotes mean something other than what they obviously mean as is?

 

[Polk]

There was no mention of "banning" in your statement...

Your statement alone is false...

That's what "pro-life" means. That you want to ban abortion.

Soooooo, "pro-abortion" means you want to force everyone to have an abortion? See how that works?

You'd be hard pressed to find a sizable number of people who are "pro-abortion".

 

[Polk]

He's had two different positions on that issue. Pretty hard to be pro-choice and pro-life at the same time.

WOW! Someone changed their mind. In human history, that has almost never happened. Why the likelyhood of any individual ever changing their mind on any given topic is something like 4 billion trillion to 1.

Either that, or he's a man with no core values, who will shift his position in a heart beat, because he's a political opportunist. At least that's what the right wing has been saying about him throughout the primary process.

The problem isn't that he changed his mind, it's that it just happened to occur when he started running for president. Sorta like how a lot of people find religion in prison...

 

[kwc57]

WOW! Someone changed their mind. In human history, that has almost never happened. Why the likelyhood of any individual ever changing their mind on any given topic is something like 4 billion trillion to 1.

Either that, or he's a man with no core values, who will shift his position in a heart beat, because he's a political opportunist. At least that's what the right wing has been saying about him throughout the primary process.

The problem isn't that he changed his mind, it's that it just happened to occur when he started running for president. Sorta like how a lot of people find religion in prison...

Sorta like how anti-oil Obama showed up here in Oklahoma today to make a campaign stop in Cushing, the center of the universe in US oil pipelines. He isn't fooling anyone here.

 

[Dick Tuck]

That's what "pro-life" means. That you want to ban abortion.

Soooooo, "pro-abortion" means you want to force everyone to have an abortion? See how that works?

How many people do you know who simultaneously refer to themselves as pro-life and pro-choice?

Pick me. I think that women who choose abortion as birth control are ass monkies. I also think that ass monkies who deny choice are ass monkies that like being up people's butts.

 

[NYcarbineer]

Romney is going race off back to the center so quick after he gets the nod that conservatives will be picking gravel out of their teeth,

or tooth, as the case may be.