Mitt Romney: Flip Flopper

Is Mitt Romney the Republican version of John Kerry? If you watch clips from his debates with Ted Kennedy in 1994, and his campaign for governor in 2002, both of which I've posted below, this seems to be the case. Professor Bainbridge nailed it yesterday on his blog:

I am deeply suspicious of politicians whose views on abortion, stem cells, and the rest of the culture of life issues "evolve" just in time for them to run for higher office.

And Erik at Redstate had this to say:

"...like Hillary Clinton, (Romney) is a political opportunist who I increasingly see as someone without principle, only a weather vane."

I agree with them. What assurances do we have that this man will keep his word on core conservative issues once he gets the Republican nomination? In '94, he said he wanted to work to "overturn" the era of Reagan/Bush. Now he's pretending to be Reagan. The problem is, McCain is even more guilty of doing this in many aspects. Both McCain and Romney called Bush's tax cuts deeply irresponsible when they first passed. Now they're celebrating them. Bush's abandonment of limited-government principles since 2000 has been bad enough, so what makes us believe these guys, who criticized just about the only conservative aspect of Bush's agenda, will be any better?

I really hate the field right now. Many, surprisingly, seem to be turning their support towards Giuliani by mere process of elimination. At least he's been somewhat consistent in what he stands for and at least seems to have some form of backbone, even if 70% of that backbone isn't conservative.

Any inkling of support any of you may have had for Romney will probably die after watching these two clips: