Hat tip to Charles Mitchell over at Evangelicals for Mitt for linking to this report from "The Politico" blog where they astutely point out that Romney was far from "a liberal" in his 1994 race against Teddy Kennedy.

Check out his campaign flyers from '94 . . . Front and Back

Below is a portion of the flyer with some of the specific issue stances:

Looks like he ran a pretty conservative campaign back then to me!

Basically, I agree with Charles about how more and more news stories and blog entries flat out say that Romney ran in '94 as "a liberal". Well, if you run acrossed that, point folks to these flyers as it helps clear up that common misconception.

I like to divide conservative credentials into three distinct areas:

1) Fiscal Conservatism
2) Social Conservatism
3) "Toughness" Conservatism (i.e. militarily or "tough on crime")

Romney has had a consistant and flawless record as a "Fiscal Conservative" AND as a "Thoughness Conservative." Those points are solid and there has been no "movement" by Romney in those areas.

Romney did not run in Mass as a "social conservative" but saying that he was a "social liberal" is not really correct either. His social stances put him as a solid "moderate" in this senatorial bid as Kennedy was to his left as the real and bonafide liberal in the race.

So, to sum up . . . Romney was never close to being a "liberal."

To even say that he was a "moderate" is missing two huge pieces of the conservative pie. Romney may have run as a "social moderate" but that's as far as the allegations should go.

In reality, Romney's "move to the right" hasn't really been all that far.