Hugh can write all he wants about how Mitt Romney is rising. All his spin won’t undo the damage that the Union Leader’s unendorsement of his boy Mitt will do. Here’s what Hugh’s boy Mitt can’t undo:

Like a lot of people in New Hampshire, we wanted to believe Romney. We gave him the benefit of the doubt. We listened very carefully to his expertly rehearsed sales pitch. But in the end he didn’t close the deal for us. Now, two weeks before the primary, the same is happening with voters.

Republicans and right-leaning independents in New Hampshire gave Romney a chance. His events have not been sparsely attended. Nor have they been scarce. He’s made more campaign stops here this year than any other Republican, even John McCain.

And after a year of comparing Romney to McCain, of sizing up the two in person and in the media, Granite Staters are turning back to McCain. The former Navy pilot, once written off by the national media establishment, is now in a statistical dead heat with Romney here.

How could that be? Romney has all the advantages: money, organization, geographic proximity, statesman-like hair, etc.

But he lacks something John McCain has in spades: conviction.

Granite Staters want a candidate who will look them in the eye and tell them the truth. John McCain has done that day in and day out, never wavering, never faltering, never pandering.

Mitt Romney has not. He has spoken his lines well, but the people can sense that the words are memorized, not heartfelt.

I’ve chronicled Romney’s flip-flopping in several posts. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out that Mitt Romney’s never met a position he wasn’t willing to jetison if the situation demanded it.

He now champions the Bush tax cuts, something I agree with. Unfortunately for Mitt, he hasn’t always liked them:

In 2003, Romney stunned a roomful of Bay State congressmen by telling them that he would not publicly support Bush’s tax cuts, which at the time formed the centerpiece of the president’s domestic agenda. He even said he was open to a federal gas tax hike.

He’s been even shiftier on life issues. Here’s the collection of Romney quotes from ARTLA’s ad:

Once upon a time there was a man named Mitt who said a very bad thing:
Romney: “I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country”
Then he thought of campaigning in Utah and said something different. “I am NOT pro-choice!”
But when he came back to liberal Massachusetts:
Romney: “I will preserve and protect a woman’s right to choose.”
Then in 2004 he magically became pro-life, but only six months later:
Romney: “I am absolutely committed to my promise to maintain the status quo with regards to law related to abortion and choice.”
The spell must have worn off.
Now he’s on the campaign trail again, and he’s back to being pro-life.
Romney: “I was pro-choice; I’m pro-life.” … “I changed my position” … “I never said I was pro-choice.”

After that, he made this feeble attempt to diminish the damage of the ad:

“My record in being pro-life is very clear as the governor of Massachusetts, and my guess is that there is some group that is pulling for another candidate and is trying to find someway to go after me, and that is just the nature of politics,” he said.

This paragraph sums up what I’ve said in previous posts:

Last week Romney was reduced to debating what the meaning of “saw” is. It was only the latest in a string of demonstrably false claims, he’d been a hunter “pretty much” all his life, he’d had the NRA’s endorsement, he marched with Martin Luther King Jr. himself, that call into question the veracity of his justifications for switching sides on immigration, abortion, taxes and his affection for Ronald Reagan.

I’ve said before that I defy anyone to tell me about a major policy position that Gov. Romney hasn’t changed. I’m still waiting for someone to respond to that challenge. I’m not holding my breath on someone answering that challenge.

Not even Hugh Hewitt is foolish enough to take that, or any other challenge.

Technorati: Mitt Romney, Flip-Flops, Endorsements, Tax Cuts, Abortion, Immigration, Hugh Hewitt, New Hampshire Union Leader, McCain, Election 2008

Cross-posted at California Conservative