Mitt Romney: The Switch-Hitter

This is a tough guy to figure out. More than any other top-tier Republican, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romenyhas been running aggressively as the best candidate to protect the "traditional family" from the onslaught of gay and lesbian marriage. Back in 2005, Romney traveled to South Carolina to make his case. "Today same-sex couples are marrying under the law in Massachusetts," he warned a Republican crowd. "Some are actually having children born to them. We've been asked to change their birth certificates to remove the phrase 'Mother and Father,' and replace it with 'Parent A and Parent B.' It's not right on paper. It's not right in fact. Every child has a right to a mother and a father."

Strong words indeed. But Romney's own paper record tells a different story. Back when he ran for the U.S. Senate in 1994, he told the voters of Massachusetts that he would be a better leader for the gay community than his rival, incumbent Democrat Ted Kennedy. "I am more convinced than ever before that as we seek to establish full equality for America's gay and lesbian citizens, I will provide more effective leadership than my opponent," he wrote in a letter just before the election. In a debate with Kennedy, he said anyone should be able to participate in the Boy Scouts "regardless of sexual orientation." Back then, he supported adding sexual orientation to employment nondiscrimination laws. He called Don't Ask, Don't Tell the "first of a number of steps that will ultimately lead to gays and lesbians being able to serve openly and honestly in our nation's military." As recently as 2002, his campaign distributed a pink flier to celebrate Pride Weekend. "All citizens deserve equal rights regardless of their sexual preference," the flier read.

In more recent years, he has become one of the nation's most public supporters of amending the Constitution to ban gay marriage, even testifying before Congress on the issue. He has come out against ENDA and announced that he supports the current military policy as it stands.

In other areas, he has not completely reversed himself. In recent interviews, he has defended his appointment of gay judges as governor and maintained that he supports contractual domestic partnership benefits for gay couples. "There are other ways we raise kids, and that's fine -- single moms, grandparents raising kids, gay couples raising kids," he said at a high school in Concord, N.H., in June. "That's the American way to have people have their freedom of choice."

The Romney record on these issues is such a muddle that his performance in the White House is difficult to predict. On the one hand, he is clearly willing to exploit the culture war for political ends and make common cause with those parts of the Republican Party most opposed to homosexual rights. He has also reversed his positions on several major issues, like gays in the military and employment discrimination, when there was a political advantage to be gained. On the other hand, his history on the issues suggests that the ties to his new friends do not run deep. "If people are looking for people who are anti-gay, they aren't going to find that with me," he said at one stop in Iowa this year. "But I am going to fight to protect traditional marriage."