I've heard him say that too. Roberts will not be a conservative activist. But he will be an originalist and that's what I want.
The best one can hope for is that John Roberts is a liar and too ashamed to state examples of judicial activism by the court are wrong. Sounds like a guy with no principles at all, the same kind of guy that would donate his time for free to gay rights activists.
It's not possible for change to occur on the court when conservatives are willing to champion someone as unprincipled as Roberts.