Mitt Romney, the political chameleon of the GOP, has recently begun trying to woo conservative Christians into his stall. His message; Romney is the best conservative Christian that the GOP has. Now, those of you who are paying attention will notice that Romney is not a Christian. Romney is; of course, aware of this and is doing his best to blur the distinction as much as possible for the average voter. Instead of focusing on the important differences between Mormonism and Christianity he speaks only of the similarities in an attempt to get uneducated voters to believe they are essentially the same.

“The values of my faith are much like, or are identical to, the values of other faiths that have a Judeo-Christian philosophical background,” he said at a campaign event in New Hampshire this month. “They’re American values, if you will.” ~ Source

Adapting to fit the desires of his voters is really just standard operating procedure for Romney. In his 1994 campaign in strongly liberal Massachusetts Romney was a strong gay rights supporter, going so far as to claim he would be better at protecting gay rights than Edward M Kennedy (D). “If we are to achieve the goals we share, we must make equality for gays and lesbians a mainstream concern,” Romney wrote. “My opponent cannot do this. I can and will.” Today Romney has taken a complete turnaround and is now campaigning on the opposite ideals, even throwing his old buddy Larry Craig under the bus as soon as word came out of his gay sex sting arrest and guilty plea.

This transformation from moderate to hard line conservative is not restricted to just gay rights. He also supported abortion rights and attempted to distance himself from Reagan during that 1994 campaign and voted for Paul Tsongas (D) in 1992. While evolving morals and ideals are understandable on one or two issues, to completely change from one ideology to the opposing ideology is suspect. Combine that with the fact that both stances match the views of his voters and it is strongly suspect. ( Source )

The real question is whether or not conservatives are willing to buy it. They have been starved for a good candidate after holding out hope for Grandpa Fred only to have him take a nap on them. Giuliani is unbearable being a pro-gay, anti-gun, pro-choice conservative on his third marriage (we’re confused too) and has conservative Christians threatening to walk out of the party. So maybe the lack of a better alternative will spell a win for Romney.

At least one ultra-conservative organization has fallen into bed with Romney. He recently won the endorsement of Robert R. Taylor, Dean of the fundamentalist Bob Jones University. Bob Jones University, which gained infamy for its ban on interracial dating, had its pick of rich white guys to endorse and even an ordained minister. However they passed them up in favor of a Mormon, which University President called a “cult” in 2000. (Source)

I guess time will tell if Romney has succeeded in blending in to his target voters enough to gain their confidence. In the mean time Romney is sure spending like a religious conservative. He has spent $21.3 million over the summer while raising only $9.5 million. Looks like the whole fiscal responsibility thing never really sinks in with so called conservatives.

*10/16/07 – William: Edited to fix links *