“I don’t believe for a second that Romney’s ideological conversions are sincere. To be fair, one can’t verify this. This is just smell test stuff. There’s something more problematic about changing a position on abortion than capital gains tax cuts. It is supposed to be such a deep moral issue about the sanctity of life, murder, etc. etc. Romney’s statements about the depth of his pro-choice position were so impassioned when he ran for Governor, his mother had been this early pro-choice person, she had run on it, he believed it, his family history… Did anyone really believe his story that he switched because he had a conversation with some scientists about stem cells? To me, it does not pass the laugh test, at all. –Peter Beinart, ‘What’s the Problem with Mike Huckabee Being a Bad Candidate for the GOP?’, National Review, December 20, 2007