He’s no Rick Santorum — yet.
In his Wall Street Journal op-ed today (“How I’ll Respond to China’s Rising Power“), Mitt Romney writes:
…President Obama came into office as a near supplicant to Beijing, almost begging it to continue buying American debt so as to finance his profligate spending here at home. His administration demurred from raising issues of human rights for fear it would compromise agreement on the global economic crisis or even “the global climate-change crisis.” Such weakness has only encouraged Chinese assertiveness and made our allies question our staying power in East Asia… [Emphasis added]
So contrast Romney’s quotemarks around “the global climate-change crisis” — which subtly indicate skepticism — with Santorum’s blunter:
Cm’on Mitt. Be bold.
Romney’s caught on the “horns of a delema”. If he repudiates climate-change, he will be attacked in the campaigns as a flip-flopper. If he offers an “explanation”, it may make him look, a Not-safe candidate for the Presidency. Still, as an “honest-man”, he should SAY: “I was ‘fooled’, once, by the shear numbers of experts that put their careers on the line, that warming was happening, and now that it looks like they lied, –for money, –for power, –for research, but for whatever reason they lied, I REFUSE to follow that play–I’m not going to Knowingly lie about anything. We all were WRONG, those of us that supported the Warmists, but shown the “error” of My ways, I am NOW a skeptic,–a Denier, and PROUD to be one. I used to support Cap & Trade, and my proposals for Universal Health Care were those adopted by the Regime, for which, I’m embarrassed as there are private plans where the coverage is better, than the plan I felt I had to put forth while I was in the Mass.-Govenorship. Because the People of Mass. have had benefits spoon-fed to them, for so long, their expectations of what THEY can do for THEMSELVES…are low, and their expectations of what the Govt. SHOULD do for them, are too high. Too high to be continued,–to be supported by taxes. I passed what I COULD pass, hoping to re-visit the plan, later. As I left the Governor’s office, after one term, I was not able to re-vamp those areas I would now, change. Now that Global-warming is NOT happening, there’s NO REASON for Cap and Tax,–and it appears the proposal was simply a way for the Demon-crats to give the U.N. more power and money, which I do not want to do, because Our Constitution is MUCH better for USA citizens. As the U.N. interfers with our citizens, I will catagoricallly reject all U.N. measures that even my forebears may have put in place.” IF Romney says this and other Conservative things, his chances for the Nomination for the Republican Party’s candidate for the presidency are high.