Well, there are those who favor more pardons/commutations than others but NONE? Others are troubled too. If he really believes that juries and judges don’t mess up and there is no role for pardons that shows a certain cluelessness and a misunderstanding of the respective roles of the executive and judicial branches. (The Framers just threw the pardon power into the Constitution for fun to see if anyone would bite?) However, when Romney was asked in an earlier debate about Scooter Libby I remember no stalwart defense of the sanctity of judicial decisions. So was this an extreme example of politics– denying potentially meritorious pardons so as to not blemish his record — or has he “evolved” on this issue?
