WASHINGTON — Republican Mitt Romney sought Sunday to deflect charges that he is a flip-flopper, insisting he had learned from experience and could be counted on to keep his campaign promises if elected president.
Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” the former Massachusetts governor acknowledged that he has shifted positions on some issues and explained that he did so after learning from experience. He said it would be a mistake if a candidate “stubbornly takes a position on a particular act and says, ‘Well, I’m never changing my view based on what I’ve learned.’”
“If you’re looking for someone who’s never changed any positions on any policies, then I’m not your guy,” Romney said.
At the same time, Romney insisted that as governor he kept all of his campaign promises despite changing some views, and he said he would stick to his promises if elected president.
“Bottom line: All the positions you laid out today as a presidential candidate, can you assure the voters you won’t flip back to some of the positions you had when you were governor of Massachusetts?” asked NBC moderator Tim Russert.
“Of course,” Romney responded.
Romney acknowledged changing his views in 2004 from supporting abortion rights to opposing abortion. He also acknowledged that he initially supported federal efforts to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation, but now only supports such laws at the state level. In an unsuccessful Senate run in 1994, Romney promised to be “more effective on gay rights in the Senate than Ted Kennedy.”
Romney said he promised not to raise taxes as governor and did not go back on his word by raising fees by about $240 million to help balance the budget. The fees were on services such as gun licenses and training to combat domestic violence. He explained that because the fees were not on broad-based services, such as driver’s licenses, they did not “have a sense, a feeling like a tax.”
“I ran as an individual who would not raise taxes, and I didn’t,” he said.
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