That is a lie. The fact is that Romney was a left winger when he ran for governor. He tried to portray himself as a born again conservative. Maybe he was, but he didn't convince enough people and ultimately decided to throw in the towel and ensure McCain's ascendancy.
Romney's Mormonism was the least of his problems. He did not come off as a real human being. He was robotic and wonkish to the max. He could not connect with people on a personal level and as a result he could not spend enough money to get people to get excited about him.
FWIW, I voted for Romney because I thought he was saying the right things, even though I had no real reason to believe him. My vote was based on nothing more than the "audacity of hope."
When Romney dropped out two days after the super Tuesday primary, he had amassed 4.1 million votes total compared to John McCain's 4.7 million votes.
Huckabee at the time had around 1.8 million, if memory serves.
Romney was hardly unconvincing. He had wide support, but because of the GOP's winner take all system, he realized he could never catch McCain, who had won California, NJ, NY, New Hamp, South Carolina, and FLA --- and thus was waaay ahead in the delegate count.
If the GOP had the same system as the Dems, Romney and McCain would still be neck and neck in popular votes and Romney would still be in the race.
And that's not taking into account that flat out corrupting absentee ballot system in Florida and elsewhere whereby 30% of the votes were cast up to TWO FREAKIN' MONTHS before the primary day.
Romney began to surge after Christmas when the vast conservative network on talk radio and in print realized he was the best Republican candidate ......
But millions had already cast their absentee ballots for Thompson, WHO WITHDREW BEFORE SUPER TUESDAY, or Guiliani, who people finally realized was flat out awful, or Duncan, who by then people realized was going no where.
This entire primary has been a Chinese fire drill of errors and Murphy's Law mishaps, which unfortunately ruined the GOP's only fresh faced Washington outsider who had a chance in the general election.
And lastly, without using those two or three 5-second YouTube snippets from 1994, and aside from his 2002 statement to not change abortion laws, do you have any other specifics to back up your claim that Romney was this 'left winger'.... when he ran for Massachusetts governor.
Romney was supported by the NRA, and got high marks from the National ProLife coalition.