The Hotline: Romney And The NRA

From The National Journal's The Hotline ~ Sunday's Boston Globe notes how Mitt Romney's gun stances seem to be more in line with the NRA now than during his bid for the U.S. Senate in '94. From the piece: "Romney appears to be stepping up his efforts to portray himself as a gun-friendly candidate, though some gun-rights activists in important primary states say his past positions will hurt him politically."

To gauge how much Romney's past gun stances have hurt him, I emailed some key observers of the gun movement for their take. An NRA staffer seemed to take the switch by Romney in stride and as a sign of the times: "Just more proof that support for the Second Amendment is politically popular as well as good and right public policy. After four consecutive elections -- particularly with the Kerry photo-op goose hunt, pheasant hunt, shooting event and fake gun gift receipt in 2004 -- being pro-gun (or not anti-gun) has become the norm for candidates who want to be competitive and successful. Gun control has become a real. political loser. The only 2006 race for federal office in which gun control was a political issue was IL-06 and the pro-gun candidate won."

The Brady bunch has been reduced to an organization waiting for a tragedy to exploit with no one - other than Carolyn McCarthy [D-NY], who will publicly associate with them.

Despite their anti-gun voting record, Clinton, Edwards and Obama are not expected to campaign as gun control candidates."

And a veteran Capitol Hill lobbyist notes Romney's not alone in his newfound respect for gun advocates: "Since none of the three leading presidential candidates - Giuliani, McCain and Romney - are truly or very conservative, each are campaigning for support from the party majority of conservatives who will be the deciding constituency to determine the 2008 GOP presidential nominee."

So is Romney's switch on guns a bigger deal for us in the media than those in the trenches? If these folks speak for the gun rights community, then that could be the case. [CHUCK TODD]

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