Mitt Romney explained today why he voted for Paul Tsongas in 1992. He said:
"When there was no real contest in the Republican primary, I’d vote in the Democrat primary, vote for the person who I thought would be the weakest opponent for the Republican."
However, there are several problems with this:
- Erick Erickson points out that it is not how Romney has explained it in the past.
- Romney donated money in 1992 to Democrats. He even did a fundraiser for a Democrat. So perhaps he wasn’t helping Republicans that year?
- Romney said he wasn’t for Bush. Again, in 1994, he said, "I was an independent during the time of Reagan-Bush. I’m not trying to return to Reagan-Bush."
Can Mitt Romney stop lying? Is it possible?
Furthermore, this is just dumb. Why is he talking about this? He could just admit that he was wrong and go on. But no, he has to invent something.
3 Comments
mymanmitt · February 17, 2007 at 9:52 AM
There’s been a good deal of controversy around Mitt’s appearance on This Week this weekend and his explanation for voting for Tsongas in 1992. This is really a pithy issue.
Let’s detail a few things here. (Many thanks for our man at MittBase for his detailed research on the issue)
First, there is nothing contradictory here. We have a report from two Boston Globe employees as to why Romney voted for someone 15 years ago. There is no direct quote.
Second, I bet if you asked Scott Lehigh, Frank Phillips, or Mitt Romney that those weren??™t the only reasons why Romney voted for Tsongas (the fact that Tsongas was from Massachusetts, and that he was better than Bill Clinton). Do you vote for someone because of only two issues? You might only give two issues, when you have limited time, but no one votes for a candidate because of only two issues.
Third, why don??™t we take Romney at his word. He voted for Paul Tsongas because he liked him better than Clinton, and that he didn??™t think that he would win the general election against Bush? Are these somehow mutually exclusive.
Fourth, the democrats and MSM is going to take everything Romney ever said 10 years ago, tell us it, and then say “however today he says…” blank. They are going to use this tactic weather it contradicted the previous statement or not. They will use this tactic every time Mitt Romney does not repeat his previous statement verbatim.
Lastly, there was NO GOP PRIMARY in 1992. There was only one place to vote. As one political guru told me “he does it all the time”.
eye · February 17, 2007 at 4:57 PM
This is not true. There were three people on the ballot in the 1992 MA GOP Presidential primary.
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