BostonGlobe.com
By Charles Babington
Associated Press / October 15, 2011
Romney's rise challenges tea party's clout in GOP
Quote:
WASHINGTON
Mitt Romney's early success in the Republican presidential race
is challenging the tea party's clout.
Will it continue to pull the GOP sharply right? Will it slowly fade?
Or merge with mainstream Republican elements
in a nod to pragmatism, something it's hardly known for?
On the surface, Romney's strength seems at odds with the tea party's
fiery success in ousting Republicans seen as compromisers,
and in making the House GOP caucus more ideological,
even when its leaders plead for flexibility.
Romney defends the government's 2008 bank bailouts,
plus the mandated health insurance he initiated as Massachusetts governor.
He says he can work with "good Democrats."
Although he later changed, Romney once supported abortion rights,
gun control and gay rights.
These positions run counter to the beliefs and goals of many
tea party activists scattered throughout the country.
Yet Romney is faring better in polls, fundraising and debates
than are contenders with stronger tea party credentials,
including Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum and Rick Perry.
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And besides all that:
The worst thing you can find about Romney is that when traveling
he puts his dog on the top of the car.
The nest worst thing is that he is like a stone --- in stone soup.