GOP hopefuls locked in rocky contest
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WASHINGTON -- Mitt Romney's subtle but unmistakable shift in rhetoric this weekend was just the latest evidence of the churning course of the Republican race for president.
On the one hand, it was natural that the former Massachusetts governor would emphasize his conservatism before a crowd of the party's most committed right-wing activists. Throughout the campaign, he has checked all the right boxes on the social issues so vital to the thousands of activists at Saturday's Conservative Political Action Conference. But he has seldom dwelled on his positions on issues such as abortion and gay rights, where his changing stands have drawn skepticism. Instead he has emphasized his business acumen with the calculation that economic issues would dominate the race in a recession-battered country.
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who flirted with a bid for the GOP nomination, was severely criticized by movement conservatives, including former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, for suggesting early last year that the country's dire economic needs argued for at least a temporary truce on social issues. Mr. Romney never endorsed that call, but his rhetoric followed that path.
But on Friday, in the wake of three losses to Mr. Santorum, Mr. Romney donned the robes of culture warrior in a speech that used the word conservative two dozen times. The shift reflected the new dynamics of the internal GOP combat. Hours after Mr. Romney spoke, a national survey from Public Policy Polling, an independent but Democratic-leaning firm, showed Mr. Santorum, for the first time, leading in a national survey of Republicans. Fresh from his victories in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado, Mr. Santorum had vaulted ahead to be supported by 38 percent of those surveyed, followed by Mr. Romney at 23 percent; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, 17 percent; and Texas Rep. Ron Paul, 13 percent.
But in a statement, PPP president Dean Debnam cautioned: "When he comes under attack in the coming days, his lead could evaporate as quickly as it was created."
First Published February 12, 2012 12:00 am
