From the Archives…

As I mentioned earlier, I think it's tough to be a credible pro-family candidate if you haven't lived out those values in your personal life. But there's more. As we say in our "Why We Support Governor Romney" statement:

We don’t want a Republican nominee who’s simply against the same things we’re against—same-sex “marriage,” abortion, and embryonic stem cell research—because there’s more to being a person of faith than standing against injustice. We want a president who embraces a comprehensive and positive values agenda: defending religious liberty and basic human rights at home and abroad, combating poverty and disease (including the scourge of AIDS in Africa) within the world’s poorest communities, and fighting for better quality of life for our citizens.

Too often, I would argue, the so-called leaders of the pro-family movement forget this second part. I'm glad to see Governor Romney isn't falling into that trap. From a blog entry on a recent campaign stop:

Andrea mentioned that fighting AIDS and poverty in Africa was an important issue to her as a young Republican and spoke of President Bush’s work leading US efforts. Gov. Romney commented how Bush had just proposed 30 billion dollars over the next 5 years to help prevent and treat the spread of global AIDS. I was able to talk with the governor about how I have repeatedly heard him call for a “Second Marshall Plan” that would reach out to marginalized countries around the world and address issues of humanitarian care and basic education. I told him that actions like that show the rest of the world the type of people we Americans are.

During the stop, Gov. Romney was asked to sign an autograph book from a young NH child. She asked him to name three good role models for her. Gov. Romney responded by telling her: “Ronald Reagan - he was a President, Bono - lead singer of the group U2 for his work to fight AIDS and poverty in Africa, and Franklin Graham - a religious figure”....Gov. Romney made his way to the exit and we told him to “save lives in Africa” on his way out. He smiled at us and told us he would do his best.

In point of fact, I've never heard of the organization on whose blog that entry appears, and many parts of its agenda seem to be lacking in terms of economic literacy. But Governor Romney's response was quite good--and much needed. I haven't seen anything similar from any of the other front-runners in either party.