Fisking Mitt’s YouTube defense

The YouTube video of Mitt Romney during a 1994 debate with Ted Kennedy shows him to be an eloquent defender of gay rights and abortion rights and dismissive of Ronald Reagan. Romney released a YouTube video of his own (per David All’s best practices) claiming that he had been wrong on some issues in the past. 

Trying to laugh off allegations that he is flip-flopping, Romney continues to misrepresent his record.

Let’s look at the most important part of his statement (full transcript below) which was designed, as AP’s Glenn Johnson pointed out, to tell "social conservatives key to his presidential campaign that he is one of them":

If you want to know where I stand, by the way, you don’t have to just listen to my words. You can go and look at my record as governor. Frankly, in the bluest of states, facing the most liberal media in the country, I’ve led the fight to preserve traditional marriage. I’ve taken every legal step I could conceive of, to prevent same-sex marriage. I’ve also taken action to protect the sanctity of life. I’ve vetoed bills that authorized embryo farming, therapeutic cloning, Plan B, emergency contraception, and, of course, a redefinition of when life was going to begin as well.

Here’s what social conservatives need to know about Romney’s assertions.

Romney said, "I’ve taken every legal step I could conceive of, to prevent same-sex marriage." Deal Hudson, a Catholic scholar who is close to President Bush, recently showed that this is not true . Hudson said that Romney had an effective, legal way to take jurisdiction over marriage from the courts. Instead, he ignored pressure from conservative groups, taking the high-publicity route, turning the issue into the basis of his Presidential campaign. For more posts on Romney flip-flops on gay rights, go here.

Romney said, "I’ve also taken action to protect the sanctity of life." Leon Wolf at Redstate has pointed out that Romney actually overturned his own Health Secretary to end the conscience exemption in Catholic hospitals in Massachusetts. Maybe he’s taken some "action to protect the sanctity of life", but it certainly hasn’t been consistent even in the last two years.

Romney said, "I’ve vetoed … Plan B, emergency contraception, …". This time Romney is telling the truth. However, it’s a flip-flop. He made a campaign promise to expand these. Will Romney win social conservative votes by breaking his promises?

Romney tries to dismiss this all as "13 year old history." However even his "record as Governor" over the last 2-4 years does not live up to his words today.

While Mitt thinks 13 years is too long to be responsible for his own words, in 1994 he had no problem criticizing Ted Kennedy for something he said 21 years earlier. In 1994, Mitt argued that pro-choice voters couldn’t trust Ted Kennedy because Kennedy had flip-flopped on abortion 21 years earlier:

"The reason they don’t trust Ted Kennedy is that he flip-flopped on abortion . . . Mitt has always been consistent in his pro-choice position.” Romney consultant Charles Manning during the Kennedy race.

Ted Kennedy (!!) was unreliable on abortion. Therefore, according to Romney’s campaign, they should vote for Romney because he’d been consistently pro-choice.

Mitt misrepresents his actions and doesn’t take responsibility for his words.

If 21 years wasn’t good enough for you to believe Ted Kennedy was really pro-choice, why is 2 years — at best — enough for conservatives to believe that Romney is really conservative?

Update: John Hawkins doesn’t think this is a successful rebuttal. And Romney’s response, however well done (not that in my opinion) is ephemeral compared to being in print. And as Glenn Reynolds points out, this got a lot of press.

The transcript:

Now it shows what 13 years will do. I’m grayer, I’m a little heavier, and I hope I’ve grown a bit wiser as well. Of course, I was wrong on some issues back then. I’m not embarrassed to admit that. I think that most of us learn with experience. I know that I certainly have.

If you want to know where I stand, by the way, you don’t have to just listen to my words. You can go and look at my record as governor. Frankly, in the bluest of states, facing the most liberal media in the country, I’ve led the fight to preserve traditional marriage. I’ve taken every legal step I could conceive of, to prevent same-sex marriage. I’ve also taken action to protect the sanctity of life. I’ve vetoed bills that authorized embryo farming, therapeutic cloning, Plan B, emergency contraception, and, of course, a redefinition of when life was going to begin as well.

I’ve also fought for family. I’ve promoted abstinence education in the schools. I’ve fought for English immersion in our schools. And school choice. And of course, as you’d expect from a Republican, I’ve held the line on taxes and I’ve worked to reinstate the death penalty. And I’m proud that, at the same time, I’ve fought discrimination. I believe every american deserves equal opportunity.

Now that’s my record. And maybe that’s why people on the other side are dredging up 13 year old history and attacking me now.