Why Romney doesn't impress me...

MIAMI, FLORIDA, May 17, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney scheduled a $50,000-a-plate fundraiser at the home of Phil Frost, the executive of the company that makes the Morning After Pill, on Wednesday night. Plan B One-Step is produced by Teva Pharmaceuticals, Frost’s company.

The pharmaceutical executive’s residence was one of several stops scheduled to increase Romney’s war chest during a two-day swing through Florida.

“It’s a huge disappointment,” Brian Camenker, director of the Massachusetts-based pro-family organization MassResistance told LifeSiteNews.com. “You wouldn’t see someone who was really pro-life doing a fundraiser with somebody who helped the abortion industry.”

Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote.org, didn’t seem troubled by the fundraiser saying, “What matters is whether a President Romney will end all taxpayer support for abortion-inducing drugs, repeal unconstitutional mandates that force private institutions to cover such drugs, and whether he will make progress in building a culture of life.”

Despite repeated media denials that Plan B is an abortion-inducing drug, the manufacturer’s website admits Plan B “may inhibit implantation” of an embryo after conception “by altering the endometrium.” Federal health officials have made the same determination. Studies have linked its use to increased STDs and ectopic pregnancies.

Concerned Women for America CEO Penny Nance told The Daily Caller she hoped Romney would return the money. The event made her “question if Gov. Romney has a clear understanding of what it means to be pro-life.”

Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul did not respond to a request from Bloomberg News about the visit.

Aside from a few scattered voices, the pro-life movement has been largely silent. The Christian Science Monitor noted, “By Wednesday, there wasn’t much chatter in the conservative blogosphere about the fundraiser.”

That dichotomy works to Romney’s advantage – and the pro-life movement’s downfall, Camenker warned. Romney is in the advantageous position of running against Obama, Camenker told LifeSiteNews, and that will solidify pro-life support behind him “because nothing he does is going to be as bad as Obama.”

As governor of Massachusetts, Romney vetoed a bill providing Plan B over-the-counter and requiring hospitals to furnish it. The legislature overrode his veto – unanimously in the state senate. Subsequently, Romney ordered Catholic hospitals to offer the Morning After Pill on the legal advice of his personal counsel, Mark D. Nielsen, although many legal experts felt he had no legal obligation to do so.

Facing social conservative Rick Santorum in the primaries, Romney pledged to “get rid of” Planned Parenthood and protect the conscience rights of healthcare providers who oppose distributing what he called “abortive pills,” such as Plan B. The fundraiser did not indicate a change in position on those issues.

However, pro-family advocates liken it to the governor’s longstanding opposition to same-sex “marriage” (although not civil unions). Several prominent Romney donors support same-sex “marriage” and exercise far greater influence than conservatives.

Romney attended at least five fundraisers in southern Florida Wednesday and Thursday, which are expected to raise $5-8 million for his campaign.

(End of story, my comments follow.)

This illustrates why I'm not too enthusiastic about the upcoming elections. Aside from the fact that I anticipate Obama pulling out all the stops in order to get elected, his opponent doesn't seem too different. "Obama Lite" has been an apt description IMO.

As I've said before, whoever is in the Oval Office is merely a symptomatic figurehead representing much that is wrong with our culture. Placing the most up to date version of "The One" in charge of the Executive Branch does dittle squat with effecting change where it's most needed. Our culture sucks, it took a long time to get that way and it'll take much longer to remedy the problem. Those of us wanting to effect change have to realize it goes beyond a quick trip to the voting booth.