In 2005 Mitt Romney decided to run for president, and set about making himself acceptable to the Republican party’s conservative base. He reversed his pro-choice stance, abandoned his support for cap and trade, and discovered a set of almost brutally nationalist foreign policies. The journey from centre-right to right-right nearly killed him, but he made it. Announcing his exit from the 2008 race before the Conservative Political Action Committee, he was introduced to wild applause as a “conservative’s conservative”.
2005年，米特?羅姆尼(Mitt Romney)決定參加總統(tǒng)競選，并著手塑造形象，讓共和黨的保守派支持者接受自己。他一改原先贊成墮胎合法化的立場，放棄了對碳排放“限量和交易”(cap and trade)機(jī)制的支持，還制定了一套幾近粗暴的民族主義外交政策。從中右向極右的轉(zhuǎn)變幾乎扼殺了他的政治生命，但羅姆尼挺了過來。在面向美國保守派政治行動委員會(Conservative Political Action Committee)宣布退出2008年共和黨候選人提名角逐時，他在掌聲雷動的觀眾面前被介紹為“保守派中的保守派”。