Stances then and now
Mitt Romney has come under frequent attack in the presidential race for shifting his positions or tone on several major issues. But Romney's main opponents in the Republican primary, Senator John McCain of Arizona and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, have done the same. Here are some examples.
Giuliani
TAXES: Last month, in accepting the endorsement of former presidential candidate Steve Forbes, Giuliani said the flat tax system Forbes has long advocated "would make a lot of sense." That's far different language than he used in 1996, when he blasted Forbes's flat tax plan as a "mistake" and a "disaster" for cities such as New York.
ABORTION: Giuliani says he supports the Hyde Amendment, a 30-year-old measure restricting public funding for abortions, and the Supreme Court decision earlier this month that upheld a federal late-term abortion ban. But in his 1993 mayoral campaign, Giuliani opposed the Hyde Amendment and handed out campaign literature saying so, according to a
CONFEDERATE FLAG: During a campaign stop in Alabama earlier this month, Giuliani declined to say whether the state ought to fly a Confederate flag over its capitol. One of the "great beauties" of a federal system of government, he said, is that "we can make different decisions in different parts of the country." "We have different sensitivities and at different times we're going to come to different decisions, and I think that is best left to the states," he said. In 1998, he praised David Beasley , then South Carolina governor, for his "courageous" stand in calling for the removal of the flag from the State House. (Giuliani did say at the time that it should be up to states to decide.)
McCain
LOBBYING REFORM: During the last congressional session, McCain sponsored legislation that would have required grass-roots lobbying groups to reveal their financial contributors. But after the measure drew opposition from gun-rights groups, anti abortion organizations, and other conservative activists, including evangelical leader James Dobson, McCain announced that he would vote against such a provision in a lobbying reform bill before the Senate.
TAX CUTS: McCain voted against President Bush's tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, saying they disproportionately benefit ed the wealthy. He later opposed making the tax cuts permanent. But last year, according to McCain's campaign, he voted to extend some of the cuts. And he said that not extending them would amount to a tax hike. He told ABC last year, "Do I think they need to be extended? Absolutely, because if you don't then it is a tax increase."
ETHANOL: McCain, who skipped the Iowa caucuses when he ran in 2000, was known as a leading skeptic of ethanol, the federally subsidized corn-based fuel that's important to many corn-growers in the state. "The ethanol mandate is highway robbery perpetrated on the American public by Congress," McCain said in 2003. Today, McCain says he supports ethanol and has called it a "vital alternative energy source." (McCain maintains his opposition to federal subsidies.)
