Romney’s very convoluted and inconsistent immigration record once again indicates he lacks a consistent worldview but few voters seem to know about this. Instead, conservative voters were flooded with information about Romney’s alleged conservative positions on immigration, much of it emanating from conservative groups and pundits.
What is strange and that many conservative leaders know Romney has a liberal background but have bent over backwards to try to convince voters that his conversion on dozens of key issues are genuine.
To give a few examples of how conservative groups and leaders misled voters:
* Evangelicals for Mitt, a very influential blog that promotes Romney to evangelicals, published a list of Romney’s positions which indicated his opposition to amnesty for illegal aliens but did not mention his support for amnesty just a year earlier. (34)*Laura Ingraham had Romney on her show rambling about sanctuary cities in New York and how he opposed amnesty. Ingraham never challenged him regarding his own sanctuary cities and his support for amnesty a year earlier. (35)
*On a different radio show, Ingraham attacked Mike Huckabee at length for “creating a magnetic pole” in terms of offering benefits that attract illegals, but ignored cities in Romney’s state that attract illegals due to their sanctuary status. Indeed, she ultimately endorsed Romney even though Huckabee never endorsed amnesty while Romney did. (36)
*In January, 2007, Ann Coulter sent out an email to some activists, claiming Romney was conservative on a host of issues, including immigration, because, as detailed above, he signed an agreement with the Immigration service allowing the Massachusetts State police to arrest undocumented aliens. But Coulter seems unaware that this policy never went into effect nor did she seem to be aware of Romney’s support for amnesty a year earlier. (37)
*In Mark Levin’s National Review article endorsing Romney, he attacked McCain for the amnesty bill, but appeared to be ignorant of the fact that Romney supported the same bill. (38)
If one multiples similar actions by major conservative pundits a thousand times, then it becomes understandable why the Romney campaign was able to convince a large bloc of conservative voters that he was in fact a conservative on this issue and other issues.
Footnotes
1)Evan Lehmann, “Romney Supports Immigration Program, But Not Granting ‘Amnesty’,” The Lowell Sun, 3/30/062) Maggie O’Brien, “Romney: Reform Immigration, allow students to stay,” The Des Moines Register, 3/23/07;http://myclob.pbworks.com/w/page/21959541/Romney%3A%20Reform%20immigration,%20allow%20students%20to%20stay
3) Romney’s campaign materials can be found here: http://www.freerepublic.com/~unmarkedpackage/#immigration or here: http://myclob.pbwiki.com/Ending-the-Tide-of-Illegal-Immigration