October 15, 2012
By Anomaly
In one day, Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney was slammed twice and not by Democrats. As reported here, Ronald Reagan’s budget director with a background working as a private-equity investor for 17 years hit Romney hard, calling him a gambler in a rigged market. But, Mr. Stockman’s blistering article was only the first.
A longtime aide to the Republican Presidential candidate’s father, George W. Romney issued a stinging critique on specifically Mitt Romney. The motivating factor to write the essay was “an accumulation” of Mitt Romney’s actions, such as his disparaging comments regarding 47 percent of America’s electorate and his decision to campaign with Donald Trump.
Walter De Vries worked with George Romney throughout the 1960s, and accused Mitt Romney of shifting political positions in “erratic and startling ways” and failing to live up to the distinguished record of his father, the former Governor of Michigan.
Mr. De Vries writes (pdf):
While that might make for some good post-debate spin, perhaps exploitation of his late father’s memory and dramatic television, the conduct of Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign is a far cry from the kind of campaign and conduct, as a public servant, I saw during the seven years I worked in George Romney’s campaigns and served him as governor.
But it is Mitt’s behavior during this presidential campaign that is distinguishing – and not those of his father at all. Since 2005, when he first decided to seek the presidency, his political posture and positions have shifted in erratic and startling ways, to the right, to the middle, to the right and shifting still.
I’ve tried to track Mitt Romney’s shifts – some 180 degrees others 360 — on key issues during the campaign. I’ve stopped at 30: abortion, stem-cell research; climate change and global warming; campaign finance; and equal pay for women are just a few.
But it is Mitt’s behavior during this presidential campaign that is distinguishing – and not those of his father at all. Since 2005, when he first decided to seek the presidency, his political posture and positions have shifted in erratic and startling ways, to the right, to the middle, to the right and shifting still.
I’ve tried to track Mitt Romney’s shifts – some 180 degrees others 360 — on key issues during the campaign. I’ve stopped at 30: abortion, stem-cell research; climate change and global warming; campaign finance; and equal pay for women are just a few.
Mr. De Vries ends his statement with the words, “As you campaign, so shall you govern. That lesson from father to son, seems to be lost in the win-at-any-cost fog of politics in the 21st century.”
Ouch. And there’s more in the linked PDF above.
