Your post 39 says it is from the debate, but the Romney quote is from 1994. So unless you think Anderson cooper used a time machine to go back to 1994, it's not very germaine.
Your post 42 is a partial quote from the transcript.
The full transcript has been posted.
We are talking about what Romney said in the debate in 2007. In the 2007 debate, he explained that he thought in 1994 that DADT wouldn't work.
The fact that you can find a 1-sentence quote from Romney that does NOT mention that reason for his position is completely meaningless, as nobody includes the reasons for their positions EVERY time they state their positions, and without context we can't even know if he mentioned his reasons at another point in that same conversation.
You are once again being quite liberal with your use of the term lie, which in this case is a false claim.
Here is the transcript, the COMPLETE transcript, of that section of the debate.
CNN/Youtube Debate Transcript:
Cooper: Governor Romney, you said in 1994 that you looked forward to the day when gays and lesbians could serve, and I quote, "openly and honestly in our nation's military." Do you stand by that?
Romney: This isn't that time. This is not that time. We're in the middle of a war. The people who have...
Cooper: Do you look forward to that time, though, one day?
Romney: I'm going to listen to the people who run the military to see what the circumstances are like. And my view is that, at this stage, this is not the time for us to make that kind of...
Cooper: Is that a change in your position...
Romney: Yes, I didn't think it would work. I didn't think "don't ask/don't tell" would work. That was my -- I didn't think that would work. I thought that was a policy, when I heard about it, I laughed. I said that doesn't make any sense to me.
And you know what? It's been there now for, what, 15 years? It seems to have worked.
Cooper: So, just so I'm clear, at this point, do you still look forward to a day when gays can serve openly in the military or no longer?
Romney: I look forward to hearing from the military exactly what they believe is the right way to have the right kind of cohesion and support in our troops and I listen to what they have to say.
As you can see from the text, Romney, asked about his 1994 statement that he wanted gays openly in the military, said he didn't, and when asked if that was a change in his position, he said YES. He said the REASON he wanted open gays in 1994 was because he didn't think DADT would work, but now he sees it is working and doesn't think we need to have open gay service.
He also said he would defer to the military on the issue.
So everything I said was absolutely the truth. I accurately quoted and summarized what he said at the debate, and your claim that I lied about it was a false personal uncalled-for attack on my integrity.
I won't even try to dissuade you from your opinion that Romney was lying about what is view of DADT was in 1994. But your quote from 1994 doesn't shed any light on that issue.
Meanwhile, I have no problem with Romney's position on gays in the military. And if the military says it's OK for gays to serve openly, I don't have a problem with that. My position on this issue as regards Romney is in tune with John Hindraker's over at Powerline, who said when this story broke over a YEAR AGO:
Or me either. I suspect that much mainstream news analysis is filtered through the false assumption that conservatives generally hate homosexuals. Thus, if a Republican politician is friendly toward gays, appoints gays to office, speaks of protecting their civil rights, etc., this is viewed as somehow at odds with, say, opposition to gay marriage. It isn't. I think a large majority of conservatives have no ill will toward homosexuals, while at the same time believing that gay marriage would be an unwise social policy. I know that some accuse Romney of flip-flopping on gay marriage, and I haven't investigated to figure out whether that charge is true or not. In general, though, his attitude toward homosexuals sounds like it is in tune with what I described as the majority conservative view.
I hope this doesn't make John Hindraker a liberal sellout.
Here is the 1994 Romney letter that Anderson Cooper was addressing and below it is the debate transcript, everyone can study the two and decide if Romney answered the actual question or avoided it and only gave reponses on don't ask/ don't tell (which were never asked). (You may have to unravel a messy post to do it.) =====================================================================
--------------------------------------------------------------------- The entire related exchange between Anderson and Cooper from the CNN debate 2007: Cooper: Governor Romney, you said in 1994 that you looked forward to the day when gays and lesbians could serve, and I quote, "openly and honestly in our nation's military." Do you stand by that? Romney: This isn't that time. This is not that time. We're in the middle of a war. The people who have... Cooper: Do you look forward to that time, though, one day? Romney: I'm going to listen to the people who run the military to see what the circumstances are like. And my view is that, at this stage, this is not the time for us to make that kind of... Cooper: Is that a change in your position... Romney: Yes, I didn't think it would work. I didn't think "don't ask/don't tell" would work. That was my -- I didn't think that would work. I thought that was a policy, when I heard about it, I laughed. I said that doesn't make any sense to me. And you know what? It's been there now for, what, 15 years? It seems to have worked. Cooper: So, just so I'm clear, at this point, do you still look forward to a day when gays can serve openly in the military or no longer? Romney: I look forward to hearing from the military exactly what they believe is the right way to have the right kind of cohesion and support in our troops and I listen to what they have to say. (Audience booing) End of related part of transcript.