Happened in Vegas, now playing everywhere

Friday, Aug. 24, 2007 | 7:39 a.m.

Mitt Romney rode into Nevada this week on a high, a top-tier Republican candidate for president fresh off a sweeping victory in the crucial Iowa Straw Poll. A new poll showed him ahead in Nevada.

By the time he left, he likely joined the many visitors to Las Vegas who, after a bad run at the tables, wished they'd stayed home.

The former governor of Massachusetts appeared to muddy his position on abortion, which was already his most vulnerable issue because for years he was in favor of abortion rights, then changed his position not long before his presidential run. Many Republicans would never support a candidate without a solid anti-abortion-rights resume.

Romney's comments, made on "Face to Face With Jon Ralston," slowly seeped out before hitting the front page of The Washington Post on Thursday.

The wealthy businessman , who is credited with saving the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, appeared on Ralston's show Tuesday before meeting with volunteers and other local journalists.

Ralston and Romney had this exchange, which began with a discussion about legalized gambling in Nevada:

Romney: "I'm going to let people make their own decisions. I'm going to let states make their own decisions on this issue."

Ralston: "The state here also made a decision two decades ago, put it in statute , a woman's right to choose. That's OK , too?"

Romney: "My view is that the Supreme Court has made an error in saying at the national level one size fits all for the whole nation. Instead, I would let states make their choices."

Ralston: "So, it's OK that we're a pro - choice state?"

Romney: "I'd let states make their own decision in this regard. My view of course is I'm a pro - life individual. That's the position I support. But, I'd let states have this choice rather than let the federal government have it."

The problem for Romney is that not long ago, he said he supported an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would ban abortion nationwide, which is the gold standard for anti-abortion activists.

In the Ralston interview, though, he appeared to be reassuring Nevada voters that he wouldn't meddle with their decision that abortion remain legal.

James Bopp, a longtime anti-abortion activist who wrote the Republican Party platform plank on abortion and serves as an adviser to Romney on the issue, said the drive to end abortion is seen as a two-step process: First, overturn Roe v. Wade, which would return abortion law to the states; and second, create consensus for a constitutional amendment outlawing abortion.

"What he said, I would say," Bopp said.

Bopp said he was comfortable that Romney is committed to ending abortion. Bopp pointed to some acts in Romney's final months in office as governor of Massachusetts, including opposition to certain types of embryonic stem cell research. The adviser also noted a number of other prominent converts to his cause, including Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, who both at one time favored abortion rights.

Romney's advantage in the dust - up is that his chief rivals for the Republican nomination have their own problems on the abortion issue. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani favors abortion rights, and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson once lobbied for abortion clinics before his own anti-abortion conversion.

The Romney episode also provided more evidence of the fluidity of the Republican presidential race, and the changes that can happen in the age of the Internet and YouTube, when a candidate's statement to a local reporter can become national news in a day or two.