Remaking Romney.(Mitt Romney)

You can always tell when the presidential campaign is beginning, because that's when liberals begin cross-dressing to pose as conservatives. This transformation was even more transparent than usual during Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney's recent trip to South Carolina and Missouri. Away from home, Romney, a Republican, posed as a "pro-life" candidate for president in 2008. He also expressed his staunch opposition to same-sex "marriage" and "civil unions."

Funny, but as a resident of Massachusetts, the image Mitt Romney recently presented in the South and Midwest clashes with the Mitt Romney I've come to know. Yet the local Republicans in Spartanburg, South Carolina, took Romney's rhetoric at face value. "I had a meeting with him one-on-one and he told me he is definitely pro-life," Spartanburg County Republican Party Chairman Rick Beltram told the press after Romney's speech.

Of course, Romney's recent rhetoric is a far cry from statements he made during his 2002 run for governor of Massachusetts. "Let me make this very clear: I will preserve and protect a woman's right to choose," Romney promised during the 2002 gubernatorial debates with Democratic candidate Shannon O'Brien. If Romney supports a "right to choose" on abortion, then how can he be "pro-life"?

Romney himself attempted to explain away the contradiction to Boston newspapers two days after his Spartanburg speech: "My position is the same. I do not favor abortion personally--I'm personally pro-life, if you will. But I do favor maintaining the laws in the Commonwealth as they are, and that's the commitment I made."

Romney may claim that he is "pro-life," but his real position is no different from that of Ted Kennedy, Hillary Clinton, or any other liberal Democrat. Even Romney's running mate in the 2002 race, current Massachusetts Lt. Governor Kerry Healey, noted during the gubernatorial campaign that "there isn't a dime's worth of difference between Mitt Romney's position on choice and Shannon O'Brien."

Romney has made a similar Clinton-esque semantic leap on the homosexual "marriage" issue. In Spartanburg, he unequivocally stated: "From day one, I've opposed the move for same-sex marriage and its equivalent, civil unions." Several days later Romney reiterated to the Boston press that he'd "made it very, very clear from the very beginning that I do not support gay marriage or civil unions.... You'll never find a statement anywhere that says I support civil unions."

Well, not in so many words. But he has backed these unions just the same. In August 2003, Governor Romney told the editorial ...