DeMint Working Hard To Sell Romney To Conservatives; Other Romney Updates
As we reported earlier today, South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint has endorsed Mitt Romney, and DeMint is already emerging as a key defender of Romney to social conservatives who are having doubts about him. Case in point: A new interview that DeMint has just given to the National Review Byron York.
In the interview DeMint, a hero to social conservatives, addresses one of Romney's most pressing problems — his change of heart on abortion — and makes the rather creative case that Romney's shift on the issue should make him more attractive to conservatives, not less. From the interview:
"I think he came by his previous position honestly," DeMint says — continuing through his study of genetic research and the question of when life begins. "He feels passionately that the value of human life begins at conception," DeMint says. "The idea that he might have changed his mind is very appealing to me, because we're not going to win that debate unless people change their minds and think it through."
Emphasis added. It's an interesting argument — a classic effort to turn a negative (Romney's apparent flip-flopping) into a positive (proof that he can change the minds of others, too). But will social conservatives buy it?
Update: In other key Romney news, former Massachusetts Governor William Weld is backing Romney rather than his friend Rudy Giuliani.
Meanwhile, the Romney camp reported today that their fundraising marathon yesterday netted them $6.5 million.
I've long been skeptical of Romney's ability to woo the Christianist right, but if he can sell his stuff to a hard-core bigot like DeMint (who has previously suggested gays ought not be allowed to teach in public schools), than maybe he really can make progress.
And I have to admit, although it is clearly spin, DeMint probably has the better of the argument philosophically. It is one thing to insist someone agree with you on a particular issue, quite another to believe that they must always have held a view identical to your own. A smart pro-lifer should recognize that marshalling a majority in favor of criminalizing abortion will require appealing to many who consider themselves pro-choice now. Pro-choicers will also need to increasingly recognize winning converts, especially if Roe is ever overturned. After all, it is easy to declare oneself "pro-life" in the abstract; the issue has much greater salience when it means imprisoning doctors and women.
Of course, this is a separate issue from what Romney actually believes, or whether he has any firm political convictions at all. DeMint believes he does; many conservatives will not be so easy to persuade.
January 9, 2007 5:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
My take is that its all over but the crying at this point. This is the Republican party we're talking about; by culture and by rules, the Republicans nominate the clear front-runner every time. Even when it was Dole, they couldn't save themselves. Unless there is something scandalous about McCain that we don't yet know, which seems unlikely, he's got it sewn up. All the major funders and activists in most early states are in his camp.
I think the calculus that people like DeMint are making in trying to drag a wooden horse like Romney onto the field is that its too late to get credit as an early McCain supporter, either with McCain or with what they perceive to be their "social conservative" base. So they calculate that they can enhance their bona fides with the wingers and at the same time enhance the price for their subsequent support for McCain, to the point that makes up for having missed the train on the first go-round.
The key for Democrats is not to hope that it isn't McCain but to take advantage of the non-competitive nature of Republican primaries and start redefining McCain as an obstacle of change and an old boy: a Vietnam-era warhawk whose no longer in touch with the country's new national security needs and a partisan Republican corrupt crony whose campaign is really a desparate attempt to keep the old boys in power and prevent the ordinary citizens from taking back our government.
January 9, 2007 5:53 PM | Reply | Permalink