Romney's Record in Massachusetts: Getting Rid of Gridlock

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/mitt-romneys-massachusetts-record-proof-of-strong-leadership/2012/06/12/gJQArQUQXV_blog.html

The Washington Post report also questioned this line from Romney's recent ad:

“He did it by bringing parties together to cut through gridlock.”

Our colleagues at FactCheck.org already established that the Democrat-led legislature overturned about 700 of Romney’s 800 vetoes. With these numbers in mind, it’s hard to believe that the governor was seeing eye-to-eye with lawmakers. Granted, lots of legislation passed despite serious differences between Romney and the mostly Democratic legislators. But that doesn’t mean the governor made it happen.

Republican Mitt Romney vetoed 800 bills sent to him from the Massachusetts legislature -- and the legislature overrode 700 of these vetoes.

Romney should not be shy about touting this record. He was more Red in a Blue state than most voters realized. He is not the tempered, lukewarm moderate which his primary opponents had alleged, if he was willing to veto so many proposed laws, with the certainty that he would be repudiated a number of times. Romney is not the flip-flopper which many voters feared he would be.

I am convinced, however, that Romney has not advertised this stalwart element of his term in office because a divided governor getting overrun by a runaway legislature would make him look weak and inconsequential, the fate similar to what Bill  Clinton endured during the first two years of the GOP resurgence starting in 1994.