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Mitt Romney: Advisers Both Help and Hurt NewsMax.com Wires BOSTON -- Mitt Romney is happy to get Greg Mankiw's economic advice - except when it's economic advice conflicting with immigration advice the Republican presidential contender has also received. Highlighting the challenge a far-flung campaign faces when it comes to message discipline, Romney has had to distance himself from his top economics adviser after Mankiw - a Princeton-trained economist now teaching at Harvard - voiced his support for an immigration bill Romney strongly opposes. "The benefits of the bill far outweigh its shortcomings," Mankiw and others wrote this month in the Dallas Morning News. "We believe (the bill) offers the only realistic way forward and urge conservatives, and all Americans, to embrace the promise it holds out." Both President Bush and Sen. John McCain of Arizona, one of Romney's top rivals for the GOP nomination, support the legislation. Romney spokesman Kevin Madden said: "Advisers are limited to exactly that - advice. Advisers are tasked with helping the process along, but the policy is decided by the boss and the boss in this case is Governor Romney, and what he says goes." Mankiw is not alone as a political enemy within, nor is Romney the only candidate in presidential campaign history to suffer such perils. Already this cycle, Democrat John Edwards severed ties with two campaign bloggers after conservatives complained their personal writings were anti-Catholic. The former North Carolina senator said he, too, was offended. Story Continues Below
And in 2000, Vice President Al Gore, another Democrat, suffered collateral damage after the public learned one of his advisers was feminist author Naomi Wolf, who had written that oral sex and masturbation among teens should be considered as alternatives to premarital intercourse. "Once you put these people on paper or on your Web site, you are essentially designating them as people associated with the campaign," said Chris Lehane, a Democratic strategist and top Gore adviser during the Wolf incident. "Anything that comes out of their mouth, off their keypad or from the tip of their pen, you claim ownership of it to some degree and have to explain it." Such internal philosophical disagreements are especially perilous to Romney, who is fighting charges he himself has flip-flopped over abortion rights, gay rights and embryonic stem cell research, among other topics. Campaigns typically tout such outside advisers to show the breadth of their support among prominent individuals. There also is a more utilitarian benefit: Outside advisers can help candidates learn the nuances of public policy. That's important for Romney, a former venture capitalist with only one term of elective office on his resume. Topics such as Social Security, the war in Iraq and alternative energy are relatively new to him. Running against better-known candidates such as McCain and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Romney has also had to broaden his name recognition nationally - a task that can be accelerated through affiliation with better-known figures. In Mankiw's case, he once served as chairman of Bush's Council of Economic Advisers. He is now co-chairman of Romney's Economic Advisory Council. Romney also has an Advisory Committee on the Constitution and the Courts, a National Faith and Values Steering Committee, and a National Hispanic Steering Committee. The op-ed piece to which Mankiw lent his name said, in part, "This is most far-reaching and thoughtful reform of our immigration system in four decades and one that will significantly enhance American competitiveness." Former Rep. Vin Weber, R-Minn., who serves as Romney's policy chairman, signed onto a similar op-ed last year in The Wall Street Journal. It proclaimed the only way to solve the country's immigration problem was to pass a comprehensive bill that includes "status for the illegal immigrants already here." Romney disagrees and said earlier this month during a Republican debate: "It's simply not fair to say those people get put ahead in the line of all the people who've been waiting legally to come to this country." Campaign photographs of a preparation session for that debate showed Romney taking notes during a round-table session with an array of advisers - including former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld and former Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey. Weld is also raising money for Romney, while Healey plans to head to Iowa to campaign on his behalf. Last fall, Healey spent much of her unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign explaining her principled differences with Romney over civil unions, embryonic stem cell research and access to emergency contraception. And last week, Weld was back in the Massachusetts Statehouse, voicing his opposition to a gay marriage ban supported by Romney. The ban was defeated, prompting Romney's campaign to issue a statement urging passage of a federal gay marriage ban. Madden, the Romney spokesman, said: "I've never met a voter who walked into a voting booth and pulled a lever for a candidate because they have a certain adviser as part of their campaign team. I believe voters vote for a president based on that person's ideas and their vision for the future."
© 2007 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Editor's note: Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
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