Romney distances self from Mass. health plan

BALTIMORE -- With signs emerging that his signature healthcare plan faces hurdles, former governor Mitt Romney has begun to distance himself from the new law and is suggesting that Democrats will be to blame if the plan falters.

WASHINGTON -- Ever since George Washington, a former surveyor, mapped out a new nation, presidents have been defined by their original occupations.

In 1950, a forward-looking Detroit auto executive named George Romney bucked the post-war trend toward big, flashy cars by introducing the pudgy Nash Rambler, which sipped gas by comparison and was considered America's first economy car.

HERZLIYA, Israel -- Mitt Romney, making a passionate appeal to pro-Israel voters, declared at a major conference on Israeli security yesterday that the United States must keep Iran from acquiring a nuclear bomb, and he's helping a former Israeli prime minister lobby Massachusetts to divest pension funds from companies that do business with the country.

Laying the foundation of a presidential candidacy, Governor Mitt Romney has spent all or part of 212 days outside Massachusetts so far in 2006, an average of more than four days on the road each week, a Globe review of his public schedules shows.

In Governor Mitt Romney's metamorphosis from social moderate to self-styled conservative presidential candidate, Nov. 9, 2004, stands out as a seminal date.

For nearly four years, Governor Mitt Romney has dazzled and befuddled Massachusetts with his on-message, scripted style of governing that sought -- and won him -- innumerable headlines and television appearances.

 New questions on Romney's stance on gays (By Raja Mishra, Globe Staff, 12/9/06)

Outside his aqua-colored concrete house here, Rene Alvarez Rosales paused under an almond tree to answer questions about a subject with which he has surprising familiarity: Governor Mitt Romney's Belmont lawn.

The day after the midterm elections, Governor Mitt Romney, reflecting on the GOP's punishing losses, issued a clarion call to conservatives: "We must return to the common-sense Reagan Republican ideals."

Governor Mitt Romney is convening meetings with small groups of evangelical leaders to seek guidance for his possible presidential run, as Romney and Mormon supporters intensify efforts to allay concerns about his faith.

 Consultant's e-mails show Mormon plan for Romney (By Scott Helman and Michael Levenson, Globe Staff, 10/22/06)

Eager to expand his network in Washington, D.C., before launching a probable presidential bid, Governor Mitt Romney is embarking on an aggressive courtship of Republican power brokers inside the Beltway.

He has been the state's most prominent politician over the last four years, but now Governor Mitt Romney finds himself in an awkward position -- he may be a political liability.

As chairman of the Republican Governors Association, Mitt Romney has directed the organization's largest contributions to candidates in three states that are key to any presidential run, enhancing his exposure in politically important precincts as he prepares for a 2008 run for president.

From his outspoken defense of President Bush on interrogating terrorism suspects to an appeal to Christian conservatives here yesterday, Governor Mitt Romney is increasingly trying to position himself as the leading conservative alternative to Senator John S . McCain III of Arizona in the 2008 presidential race.

 Khatami urges US, Iran to use restraint (By Farah Stockman, Globe Staff, 9/11/06)

Four times during the past nine months, Governor Mitt Romney and his aides have reversed decisions by his public health commissioner or heavily influenced the adoption of policies consistent with the governor's conservative social views.

 AUDIO SLIDESHOW: Lessons of the Father

AMES, Iowa -- Nearly three weeks after a ceiling collapse in a Big Dig tunnel killed a Boston woman, Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney portrayed his stewardship of the crisis as a sign that he is ``willing to take action."

For Mitt Romney's image-makers, the narrative has a new chapter. He swooped in to save the 2002 Winter Olympics. He eagerly led a Massachusetts campaign last year to shelter evacuees from Hurricane Katrina. Now he's seized responsibility for the latest crisis: the fatal failures last week of the $14.6 billion Big Dig.

Governor Mitt Romney is financing the early stages of his potential presidential campaign with a novel, multistate fund-raising operation that is allowing him to maximize legal donations, outflank top Republican competitors, and minimize public scrutiny.

Governor Mitt Romney's top political strategist has told a prominent conservative magazine that his client has been ''faking" his support of abortion rights in Massachusetts.

It is the first line on Governor Mitt Romney's resume as a potential presidential candidate. He closed Massachusetts' $3 billion budget gap by cutting government waste instead of by raising taxes, he tells Republican audiences. He says he saved money by shrinking the public workforce and eliminating superfluous agencies. And, Romney boasts, he protected education from the budget ax.

Governor Mitt Romney and his wife, Ann, have donated nearly $2.9 million to more than 40 healthcare groups, schools, and other charitable organizations since 1999, including $2.2 million to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a Globe review of Internal Revenue Service documents shows.

Three years after expressing support for ''the substance" of Roe v. Wade, Governor Mitt Romney criticizes the landmark ruling that legalized abortion and says the states should decide separately whether to allow it.

Governor Mitt Romney's top political strategist has told a prominent conservative magazine that his client has been ''faking" his support of abortion rights in Massachusetts.

A national gay and lesbian Republican organization accused Governor Mitt Romney of "flip-flopping" on civil unions for same-sex couples, and other gay activists and Democrats complained that Romney was reinventing himself as a conservative to run for president.

Governor Mitt Romney took his fight against same-sex marriage to the national level in a Wall Street Journal column urging his fellow governors and state lawmakers to act quickly to define marriage as a heterosexual institution to avoid having a court decide otherwise.

As politicos gathered in a local ironworkers hall five months ago, US Senator John F. Kerry welcomed the new governor, Mitt Romney, to the annual St. Patrick's Day breakfast and offered a prediction: "My money's on Bulger."