John, you provide the best defense Mitt could have and demonstrate an admirable open-mindedness in the process. I’m not sure pro-lifers are prepared to be as open and to let their guard down. We’ve been burned before. We want someone who, when the moment comes, has already decided who they are and what they believe and will not be caught up in a new determination. I think Mitt is extraordinarily susceptible to that new determination.
In any case, there’s actually a pragmatic impulse behind constantly questioning a candidate’s commitment and forcing them to protest their commitment time and again. You radically increase the price of going back to the other side of the issue in the future.
