has changed over time? look, at heart, mitt romney is a pragmatist. as we know, he looks at every campaign and situation and figures out what he has to do to succeed in that environment. when he was in massachusetts, it was a very different calculus there. you go back further than that in his gubernatorial campaign, at one point she was asking for a tax on suvs because they use more gasoline. that is very difficult to imagine him saying today. to the extent he has an ideology, it is pragmatism. i think that is who he is at heart. when you ask him about it, he says, look, i wrote this book no apology, all my views are in there. the fact is, you re right, he has changed on a number of things, well beyond abortion stuff that got so much
bad idea and raised prices at the pump on massachusetts people directly to clean up pumps at the gas stations. and then got rid of the purpose for the fund and applied it to the general coffers, all that stuff totally opposite to what he is attacking president obama for on gas prices. is that a case of selective amnesia. he doesn t remember that he s done that or do you think he s hoping the people won t bring that up in his record or the kind of thing he acknowledges he has changed over time? look, at heart, mitt romney is a pragmatist. as we know, he looks at every campaign and situation and figures out what he has to do to succeed in that environment. when he was in massachusetts, it was a very different calculus there. you go back further than that in his gubernatorial campaign, at one point she was asking for a
economy, we are going to lose. stop it right there. that was mitt romney s first television ad. makes it sound really bad, right, what president obama said, makes it sound awful. president obama is saying, right there, you heard him in the ad, if we keep talking about the economy, we are going to lose. i want to know what president obama really said? senator mccain s campaign actually said, i quote, if we keep talking about the economy, we re going to lose. he was quoting somebody else. he was quoting somebody else critically and they made it look like that s what president obama was saying on his own behalf. they made it look like he said something he did not say. that s the equivalent of editing the word of don t out of somebody saying, i don t love you in order for you to prove how beloved you are. you said it. i took it out of context? that was the first mitt romney ad out of the campaign. in a political world where there are very low expectations for how truthful political a
the campaign s lack of remorse or even explanation when they get caught lying. they don t correct it when they get called out, don t feel bad about it, don t seem to see it as a problem. case in point, the very first television add run by mr. romney s campaign. we talked about his announcement maiden speech when he launched his campaign, he told a big lie in this case about the economy. not just in his first speech, in his first ad on the romney campaign, he told an absolute black and white, no question full on, blatant lie. i am confident we can steer ourselves out of this crisis. we need a rescue plan for the middle class. we need to provide relief for homeowners. it will take a new direction. if we keep talking about the