Romney Tries To Rebound On Record

(AP) — Mitt Romney has staked his political comeback in New Hampshire on the strength of his resume – success in business, fixing a troubled Olympics, turning a budget deficit into a surplus in neighboring Massachusetts.

It’s a late gamble that may prove a better bet than the policy positions that exposed him time and again to charges of flip-flopping, opportunism and a distinct lack of authenticity.

Romney, who had adopted the preferred GOP position on abortion rights, gay rights and embryonic stem cell research regardless of his past views on those hot-button issues, decided all that paled into comparison to something he did not have to finesse: his record.

On Friday night in Manchester, and then on Saturday in Derry and Sunday in Nashua, he vigorously declared he was the change agent that voters say they want.

“If you want to see change in Washington, it’s going to take somebody going there who knows how to change things,” he said Friday.

The argument is no stretch for Romney.

As a venture capitalist, he made millions for himself and investors by financing promising young companies or retooling others that had fallen on hard times. Among them was Staples, the now widely known office supply giant.

The night before the company opened its first store in Boston, Romney was there, bringing pizza for the workers and helping to stock the shelves. Today, Staples has 80,000 workers in nearly 30 countries with $18 billion in revenues.

All those facts came from Tom Stemberg, the Staples founder, who traveled to Derry on Saturday to provide a testimonial for his former financier.

“When we started Staples, most venture capitalists couldn’t buy into the idea, they couldn’t conceive of trying to save money on paper clips and pencils. Mitt Romney, who always tried to save money for his state, for his family and for his country, quickly embraced the idea,” Stemberg told the crowd.

His millions in the bank, Romney had the financial independence in 1999 to accept the challenge of resurrecting the Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games, which had become mired in a bid-rigging scandal and financial troubles.

The titans in Utah sought out Romney because his family stature, business acumen and personal ethics were unquestioned.

“You know how much I knew about sporting events?” Romney said. “Not much. You know, I’d gone to some. What did I know about running an Olympics? But what I did know was how to take on tough problems and create change.”

The Games ended with a surplus, as well as rave reviews for such innovations as musical concerts at the medal ceremonies.

The Olympics behind him, Romney returned to Massachusetts and ran for governor. Despite being a Republican forced to deal with an overwhelmingly Democratic Legislature, he turned a budget deficit into a surplus. The governor, who took no salary, shamed lawmakers into passing on a proposed $250 million retroactive tax hike.

Romney also signed into law legislation creating universal health care coverage in the state.

The importance of that accomplishment is clear from one fact: No other state – nor the country, for that matter – has been able to achieve the same thing.

During his four years in office, though, Romney also began to pad his political resume.

The avowed abortion rights supporter – whose own relative died from an illegal abortion – declared himself an abortion opponent.

The guy who once boasted of having few fans at the National Rifle Association started touting his gun rights views.

And the man who, in 1994, bragged he would be a better champion of gay rights than Sen. Edward M. Kennedy cast himself as a guardian at the gate when the Supreme Judicial Court mandated in 2003 that Massachusetts become the first state to allow gay marriage.

Upon leaving office last January, Romney also signed a no-new-taxes pledge – the same one an aide had dismissed four years earlier by saying the governor did not want to engage in “government by gimmickry.”

It’s no surprise the long knives came out for Romney during weekend debates with his GOP rivals. Rivals Mike Huckabee and John McCain felt little love for a candidate who ran the campaign’s first negative ads – and then pleaded for a focus on the issues when they struck back with criticism of his policy shifts.

Unfortunately for Romney, the blowback overshadowed the substantive shift taking place at his events. He was arguing that if voters want change in Washington, he’s the best equipped to bring it. Considering the scope of his accomplishments, it makes for a cogent argument.