This morning, Newt Gingrich pointed out just how long Mitt Romney has been running for office: “The fact is, you ran in '94 and lost, that's why you weren’t serving the Senate with Rick Santorum. The fact is, you had a very bad reelection rating, you dropped out of office, you had been out of state for something like 200 days preparing to run for president, you didn’t have this interlude of citizenship while you thought about what to do. You were running for president while you were governor, and you were going all over the country, you were out of state consistently. You then promptly re-entered politics – you then happen to lose to McCain as you had lost to Kennedy. Now you’re back running. You have been running consistently for years and years and years, so this idea that suddenly citizenship showed up in your mind, just level with the American people, you’ve been running since at least the 1990’s.”

ROMNEY HAS BEEN RUNNING FOR OFFICE SINCE 1994

Romney Has Been Running Since 1994 And “Would Have Been A Career Politician Too, If Only Voters Would Have Let Him.” Jonathan Last, senior writer at The Weekly Standard wrote of Romney: “It’s funny that Romney’s line of attack on Perry seems to be that Perry is a ‘career politician’ because he’s been in elective office since 1984. Well, Mitt Romney would have been a career politician too, if only voters would have let him. He’s been running since 1994. His real gripe about Perry is actually, ‘Hey, that guy wins all the time! No fair!’” [Jonathan Last’s Website, 8/29/11]

ROMNEY REINVENTED HIMSELF IN EACH OF HIS RUNS FOR PUBLIC OFFICE

LA Times: “In Each Of His Runs For Public Office, Romney Has Remade Himself.” “The problem has been fed by the fact that, in each of his runs for public office, Romney has remade himself. Last time out, he shed his moderate social views on abortion and gay rights, then struggled to convince primary voters of his conservative bona fides. A perception grew that the handsome candidate, with his almost-too-perfect hair and teeth and seemingly scripted answers to every question, would say anything to get elected.” [LA Times, 3/5/11]

“There Have Been Different Versions Of Mitt Romney” – Moderate 1994-2002, Social Conservative 2008, Economist 2012. “There have been different versions of Mitt Romney. When he ran for U.S. Senate against Ted Kennedy in 1994 and successfully for Massachusetts governor in 2002, he was the moderate, can-do businessman who supported abortion rights and distanced himself from Ronald Reagan. When he ran for president in 2008, Romney stressed social conservatism. He stressed his opposition to abortion rights, as well as tough anti-illegal immigration positions. These days Romney tries for a looser look, sans tie, and focuses on the economy.” [St. Petersburg Times, 6/16/11]

Romney Has Re-Invented Himself From “A Fairly Liberal US Senate Candidate” To “A Moderate Gubernatorial Candidate” To “A Conservative Presidential Candidate.”  “But some of those same people concede that, as a political strategy, there are two big potential hazards to ‘letting Mitt be Mitt.’ First, Romney’s previous reinventions — as a fairly liberal US Senate candidate, a moderate gubernatorial candidate, and then as a conservative presidential candidate — have already strained his credibility beyond the breaking point. Any further change — even to become the real, authentic Romney — will be viewed with suspicion, if not derision.” [Boston Phoenix, 2/10/10]