Willard Mitt Romney was born in 1947 in Detroit, Michigan. His father, George W. Romney, served as Governor of Michigan and ran for president in 1968. A devout Mormon, Romney is a graduate of Brigham Young University. He went on to Harvard after graduation and earned an MBA and a law degree there.
After graduation from Harvard in 1975, Romney entered a career in investment management. In 1998 he left the Boston area to work with the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics Committee. When the leadership of the committee was forced to resign after a corruption scandal, Romney was asked to take over.
Romney entered politics in 1994 with an unsuccessful bid to unseat Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy. In 2002, Mitt Romney was elected governor of Massachusetts and served one six-year term.
Abortion and Stem Cell Research
Romney says that Roe v. Wade, the US Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion, should be overturned. But he has been more liberal on abortion in the past. He is opposed to stem cell research when it involves the destruction of a human embryo.
Education
There was a time when Romney advocated closing the federal government’s Department of Education. Now he supports No Child Left Behind.
Health Care
As governor, Romney passed a law requiring all state residents to have health care. Private employers paid a fine for employees they didn’t insure and the state offered health coverage to uninsured individuals who met income guidelines. Romney says that he opposes a federal health care program, though; that should be left to states, in his view. At the same time, he holds up the Massachusetts program as a model for using the current private health insurance system to provide coverage to everyone.
Immigration
Romney has said that America should “enforce the law” regarding the 12 million immigrants that are in America illegally. He has also advocated making English the national language, while acknowledging that we should not stop communicating in Spanish when necessary.
Taxes and Social Security
Romney has pledged to oppose all tax increases. He advocates various forms of tax relief for the middle class and wants to reduce government spending. But as Governor of Massachusetts he increased state revenue by about 10% to balance the state’s budget. Romney says that he increased state fees, and that increasing fees is not the same as raising taxes. Romney is in favor of private social security accounts. He has said that he is "open" to the idea of cutting benefits to future generation of retirees.
Gay Marriage
Romney has grappled extensively with the issue of gay marriage because while he was governor his state's supreme court declared it legal. Massachusetts eventually passed a law that allowed civil unions instead of same-sex marriage.
The Iraq War
Romney has been a consistent supporter of the Bush Administration’s efforts in Iraq.
Conclusion
Romney is clearly one of the GOP frontrunners in the 2008 election. He has managed to get some in the party's Religious Right to see past his Mormon faith and embrace his largely conservative family values. But questions remain as to whether his positions on abortion and gay marraige will be conservative enough to win him the support of the GOP base.
Mitt Romney's Official Site: www.mittromney.com
Greg Cruey - Greg Cruey is an educator and journalist. He works as an educational interventionist specializing in a small, rural school in Central ...
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