During the debate, Mitt Romney was asked:
MR. WALLACE: Governor Romney, during this campaign, you have been criticized — and again tonight you’ve been criticized — for changing your position on some issues. You say that it’s a part of learning from experience. Can you point to an area in which your learning from experience led you to change to a position that is less popular with the Republican base?
Romney answered, "No Child Left Behind":
MR. ROMNEY: Sure, a number — quite a few, actually.
And as Senator McCain did, as he mentioned the flag issue — I have issues that take me in the same direction. One is No Child Left Behind. I’ve taken a position where, once upon a time, I said I wanted to eliminate the Department of Education. That was my position when I ran for Senate in 1994. That’s very popular with the base.
Pew points out that 67% of Republicans approve of NCLB!
However, Pew polling shows that Romney’s new position may be more in tune with the GOP base than was his previous one: Fully 67% of Republicans support the president’s handling of education.
Now, I am sure that Romney has seen polling on this… (I’m just having fun here. Check out the rest of the Pew poll)
3 Comments
marsh76 · May 17, 2007 at 9:15 PM
Of course, approval of NCLB is different from approval of Dept of Ed. It is widely understood that the right (particularly the far right) has long wanted the Dept of Ed disbanded. Now, whether after the passing of the NCLB, especially in light of current approval ratings for the NCLB Act, approval ratings for the Dept of Ed generally have improved is beyond me, but I found Romney’s answer on point.
eye · May 17, 2007 at 9:19 PM
NCLB is Bush’s only education proposal. The question wasn’t about the Department of Education. it was about Bush’s education record.
eyeon08.com » Hugh Hewitt is getting silly · May 21, 2007 at 3:07 PM
[…] Maybe Hugh should be attacking the loyalty of his own candidate, who actually, has a record of disloyalty. Or maybe Hugh is just sore that he has to spend all of his time defending a principleless flip-flopper, who has flip-flopped on abortion, gay-rights, taxes, guns, embryonic stem-cell research, Ronald Reagan, the Contract with America, his draft-dodging, education, immigration, and campaign finance-reform. […]
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