Debate Buoys Romney Fans

More than 100 Utahns gathered Thursday to cheer on former Salt Lake Olympic leader Mitt Romney during the first Republican presidential debate — and he didn't disappoint them.

None of the three top GOP candidates — Romney, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Arizona Sen. John McCain — appeared to make any significant missteps during the 1 1/2-hour debate at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif.

Nor did the seven other participants, Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, and Reps. Tom Tancredo of Colorado, Duncan Hunter of California and Ron Paul of Texas.

"I don't think there was anything in the debate that would dramatically alter the early handicapping," said Kelly Patterson, director of Brigham Young University's Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy.

Patterson said Romney used the debate to define himself to a broader audience, one that likely doesn't know him as well as many Utahns do as a result of his leadership of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

"Romney did a very good job because you could walk away saying he is for strengthening the family, strengthening the economy and strengthening the military," Patterson said, referring to the campaign theme that Romney repeated throughout the debate.

Patterson said Romney, Giuliani and McCain emerged looking presidential. But for the Utahns who were asked for a suggested contribution of $100 each to attend a Romney fund-raising event in a downtown Salt Lake office building, there was a clear winner Thursday.

"Of course he won," said Romney backer John Miller, CEO and an owner of National Beef Packing Co., calling him "a man who obviously has tremendous leadership skills. He is TV friendly. He looks comfortable in his own skin. He is not afraid to tackle tough questions."

Abortion was the question asked by moderators from the MSNBC cable news channel and The Politico Web site that most sharply divided the candidates. Only Giuliani answered that "it would OK" if the Supreme Court upheld the 1973 landmark ruling legalizing abortion.

Romney joined the rest of the 2008 hopefuls in opposing abortion. But he said that while he has always been personally pro-life, he wasn't sure whether the government had a role in that decision until he started studying cloning a few years ago as governor of Massachusetts.

The issue presents a challenge for both candidates, Patterson said, because while the Republican base may not like Giuliani's pro-choice position, they may also question Romney's explanation for his change of heart.

"It's an articulate answer, it's delivered with passion," Patterson said of Romney's effort to explain what some critics have called flip-flopping on abortion. "The question is whether or not the rank and file activists believe it."

McCain was not as clearly on message as Romney and Giuliani, Patterson said. But the senator who counts Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. among his supporters delivered one of the best lines of the debate when he pledged to follow terrorist leader Osama bin Laden "to the gates of hell."

Romney, too, talked tough on terrorists, promising that bin Laden "is going to have to pay or he will die." Faith was also a topic. Romney's LDS beliefs have been questioned by Christian evangelicals who hold considerable sway in GOP. He dismissed the suggestion that the Catholic Church shouldn't be able to deny communion to members who favor abortion.

"I can't imagine a government telling a church who can have communion," Romney said, describing America as a country that "wants a leader who is a person of faith. But we don't choose our leaders based on which church they go to. This is a nation which also comes together, we unite over faith and over the right of people to worship as they choose."

Patterson said while Romney's membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was not addressed directly, "it was alluded to, and provided a platform from which the candidates could talk about the importance of faith and values."

Steve Fox, a financial representative from West Jordan who contributed $25 to Romney's campaign to watch the debate alongside other supporters, liked what he heard — and didn't hear — about religion.

"I'm glad they didn't focus on it," said Fox, who, like most Utahns, is LDS, but unlike the majority of the state, doesn't consider himself staunchly Republican. "It's not about Mormonism ... even though Romney is a great leader who happens to be Mormon."

Yes he has. A few exaomples:

Romney was presented with legislation concerning life issues on several occasions from the 85% majority Democrat Legislature in Massachusetts. In every instance he took the pro-family position by vetoing bills or lobbying for the pro-life or pro-family approach, including the following actions:

- He vetoed the bill providing state funding for human embryonic stem cell research

- He vetoed a bill that provided for the "morning after pill" without a prescription because it is an abortifacient and would have been available to minors without parental notification and consent

- He vetoed legislation which would have redefined Massachusetts longstanding definition of the beginning of human life from fertilization to implantation

- He supported parental notification laws and opposed efforts to weaken parental involvement

- He fought to promote abstinence education in public school classrooms with a program offered by faith-based Boston group Healthy Futures to middle school students. (Romney Announces Award of Abstinence Education Contract, April 20, 2006)

- Eight prominent leaders of pro-life and pro-family groups in Massachusetts wrote an open letter praising Gov. Romney for his leadership and accomplishments in these important issues and attesting to his commitment to the pro-life and pro-family causes.

And, he did all this in a state with only 13% Republicans and a legislature @ 85% Democrat. He stood up for life and families in a true blue state.

Romney is not like Giuliani at all. Some major differences illustrated here:

Romney and Giuliani on Abortion
April 26th, 2007 In an interview with Politico.com, Mitt Romney said merely choosing conservative judges, an approach Rudy Giuliani has advocated, is not enough. Romney said, “You also have decisions as an administration on things like abstinence education, on the morning-after pill, on teaching kids to wait before they have babies, on insisting on parental responsibility for a father who has an out-of-wedlock child.”

In a clip on YouTube we linked to earlier, Romney echoed similar views by saying, “Well of course, we’re all going to talk about appointing judges that will follow the law and not legislate from the bench. But being pro-life is of course much broader than just the kind of judges you appoint, there’s legislation which month to month and year to year comes forward that can either protect the sanctity of life or can take it away. As governor, I had several measures that came into my desk which affected life and they were not court decisions, they were legislative decisions which I faced as governor.”

From Unmarked Package's homepage:

Homosexual Rights

"Romney has always opposed same-sex marriage. He diligently lobbied Congress in favor of a Federal Marriage Amendment to the U.S. Constitution defining marriage to be between one man and one woman. Romney testified before the U.S. Senate on the Federal Marriage Amendment, and sent a letter to all 100 U.S. Senators asking them to vote for the Amendment. Sen. John McCain and Rudy Giuliani opposed the FMA."

Governor Romney: "A lot of people get confused that gay marriage is about treating gay people the same as treating heterosexual people, and that's not the issue involved here."

"This is about the development and nurturing of children. Marriage is primarily an institution to help develop children, and children's development, I believe, is greatly enhanced by access to a mom and a dad."

"I think every child deserves a mom and a dad, and that's why I'm so consistent and vehement in my view that we should have a federal amendment which defines marriage in that way." (ABC News This Week interview with Mitt Romney on Feb 18, 2007) (Mitt TV Clip)

When the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling in the case of Goodridge v. Department of Public Health legalized same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, Gov. Romney identified and enforced a little-known 1913 state law that forbids nonresidents from marrying in Massachusetts if their marriage would not be recognized in their home state. This prevented gay couples living outside Massachusetts from flocking to MA to be married and then returning to their home states to demand the marriages be recognized, thus opening the door for nationwide same-sex marriage. Implementation of the 1913 law was contested in court by same-sex couples from outside MA, but the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in March, 2006 to uphold the application of the law. (Mass. high court says nonresident gays cannot marry in state, Boston Globe, March 30, 2006)

Gov. Romney provided active support for a citizen petition drive in 2005 that collected 170,000+ signatures for a state constitutional amendment protecting marriage. He rallied citizens to place pressure on the Legislature for failing, through repeated delays, to fulfill their constitutional obligation to vote on placing the marriage amendment on the ballot. Gov. Romney filed suit in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) asking the court to clarify the legislators’ duty to vote on the issue of the amendment, or place the amendment on the ballot if the Legislature failed to act. The SJC declared that legislators had a constitutional duty to vote on the petition in a ruling handed down on Dec. 27, 2006. The suit was successful in pressuring the Legislature to vote on the issue of the amendment. A vote was taken on January 2, 2007 and the measure passed. Through Governor Romney’s considerable efforts and leadership, a state constitutional amendment defining marriage to be between one man and one woman has passed a critical hurdle to get it placed on the 2008 ballot where voters in Massachusetts will have the power to restore traditional marriage in their state.

Mitt Romney does not favor action at the national level to sanction civil unions and would leave it to the several states to define the permissible contractual relationships between two people. Romney would not seek to impose, at the national level, a prohibition on contractual relationships between two people. (ABC News This Week interview with Mitt Romney on Feb 18, 2007)

Governor Romney strongly defended the right of Catholic Charities in Massachusetts to deny placing adoptive children in the homes of gay couples; saying it was unjust to require a religious agency to violate the tenets of its faith in order to satisfy a special-interest group. Romney filed "An Act Protecting Religious Freedom" in the Legislature, a bill to exempt Catholic Charities of Boston and other religious groups from the state anti-discrimination law. (Romney files 'religious freedom' bill on church and gay adoption, Boston Globe, March 15, 2006)

Whereas Mitt Romney believes sexual orientation should not preclude joining the Boy Scouts, he supports the right of local Councils of the Boy Scouts of America to decide and enforce their policy regarding homosexuals in their organization and leadership. Romney served on the Boy Scouts of America’s National Executive Board from 1993 to 2002.

Governor Romney responded to a question about the Federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) and gays in the military during an NRO interview with Kathryn Jean Lopez in December, 2006:

Lopez: And what about the 1994 letter to the Log Cabin Republicans where you indicated you would support the Federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) and seemed open to changing the "don’t ask, don’t tell" policy in the military? Are those your positions today? Gov. Romney: "No. I don’t see the need for new or special legislation. My experience over the past several years as governor has convinced me that ENDA would be an overly broad law that would open a litigation floodgate and unfairly penalize employers at the hands of activist judges."

"As for military policy and the "don’t ask, don’t tell" policy, I trust the counsel of those in uniform who have set these policies over a dozen years ago. I agree with President Bush’s decision to maintain this policy and I would do the same." (A Primary Factor, NRO, December 14, 2006)

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