I’m an admirer of Mitt Romney, but it seems that his rivals are getting traction with their attacks on the not-very-conservative aspects of his record. This morning, John McCain went after Romney effectively on Face the Nation. Fred Thompson weighed in with a crack about Romney running for the Senate to the left of Ted Kennedy, which was hyperbolic but not ridiculously so.
I have to admit that I was taken aback by this YouTube video of Romney in a 1994 debate with Kennedy, which is making the rounds. Maybe everyone else has already seen it, but what struck me was that it wasn’t just the social issues, abortion and gay marriage, on which Romney took a moderate to liberal line. More disconcerting was his effort to distance himself from the Reagan administration, during which he pointedly said that he had been an independent:
For a lot of Republican primary voters, that could put Romney in St. Peter territory. This video was obviously assembled to highlight Mitt’s liberal moments, but if there is a conservative montage from the same campaign, I’d advise the Romney people to put it out, pronto.
UPDATE: The Romney campaign writes:
As you recognize, the video you posted was selectively recut by Governor Romney
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