Romney Flip Flops Image

Money is an aphrodisiac in politics.

So when Mitt Romney raised nearly $21 million in campaign cash during the first quarter of this year, substantially more than either Rudy Giuliani or John McCain, he became the Republicans' new It Guy.

Money can't buy love, but it can make you hot. His poll numbers soared in New Hampshire.

Just when the $21 Million Man thought he'd pushed aside the allegations of flip-flops, though, he showed up in "Doonesbury." Cartoonist Gary Trudeau skewered Romney last week for his changing positions.

Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, once supported abortion rights, the Brady gun control law, gay rights and stem-cell research. That was before he was against them. His wife, Ann, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1998 and has said she hopes stem-cell research provides a cure. He blocked certain types of the research.

He loaned himself $2.4 million for his presidential campaign but then told reporters it would be "akin to nightmare" if he had to use his own money.

He says he's been a hunter all his life, but his campaign conceded he has been hunting exactly twice - once as a teenager and once last year. Oh, those pesky details.

Romney says his views have evolved. He has been crafting an image as a Washington outsider, a fiscal and social conservative with a plan to cut federal spending by $300 billion in 10 years. He touts his business experience - he made a fortune with Bain Capital, the investment firm he started in Boston - and his organizational skills in turning around preparations for the Winter Olympics in Utah in 2002. He dubbed himself "the C.E.O. governor."

"I like vetoes. I vetoed hundreds of spending appropriations as governor," he says in a new TV ad. "And frankly I can't wait to get my hands on Washington."

He's the Republican to watch.

At the Gridiron Club dinner March 31, he wowed a crowd of political elites and media moguls with a humorous speech, video and song. He brought his own country music trio.

The club, whose members are Washington journalists, had invited Romney to be the Republican speaker at its annual show, which features musical skits lampooning Democrats and Republicans. Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois spoke for the Democrats.

The Gridiron chorus introduced Romney, singing to the tune of "Fly Me to the Moon" that he was the ideal presidential candidate. "His hair, his teeth, it's evident -- he's preordained to be president!"

And, the song noted, he has only one wife, a reference to other candidates' multiple marriages and to Romney's religion. He's a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Mormons.

He and his wife have five children and 10 grandchildren.

His performance was pure showmanship. "I'm a little late," he said. "I bumped my head and broke my hair."

Mormons have a problem with sex "not because sex is wrong but because they believe sex can lead to dancing," he said.

"It's hard being a conservative in Massachusetts," he said, "like being a Mormon in a room full of alcoholics - like here."

Besides dancing, Mormons abstain from alcohol, smoking and caffeine, which may help explain why Romney looks much younger than 60.

More than a dozen Mormons serve in Congress, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, but political watchers are unsure whether voters are ready for a Mormon president. Some polls indicate 40 percent of Americans won't vote for a Mormon president. The only recent presidential campaign by a Mormon -- Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, in 2000 - was short-lived.

Romney knows well that a verbal misstep can torpedo a campaign before voters even get to the polls.
His father, George Romney, was the GOP front-runner going into the 1968 presidential primaries when, right before New Hampshire, he said he supported the Vietnam War because he had been "brainwashed" by generals and diplomats.

George Romney, a three-term governor of Michigan who had headed American Motors, was forced out of the race.

Mitt Romney is hoping his $21 million buys him more staying power.

(E-mail Marsha Mercer, Washington bureau chief of Media General News Service, at mmercer@mediageneral.com