Gillespie rebuts charge Romney shifted in debate, says he has been ‘consistent’

Ed Gillespie, a senior adviser to Mitt Romney’s campaign, is rebutting Democratic claims that the GOP nominee moderated his conservative positions in his first debate with President Obama.

“The fact is, Gov. Romney’s positions don’t comport with the 30-second attack ads that the Obama campaign has been running,” Gillespie said on Fox News Sunday.

He said Romney has been “consistent throughout this campaign” and that his positions would boost the economy.

Obama has alleged that Romney is changing his positions as the election approaches to win centrist swing-state voters.

“After running for more than a year in which he called himself ‘severely conservative,’ Mitt Romney is trying to convince you that he was severely kidding,” Obama said Thursday at a campaign stop in Florida.

“Suddenly, he loves the middle class – can’t stop talking enough about them. He loves Medicare, loves teachers. He even loves the most important parts of 'ObamaCare.' What happened?,” the president added about the first debate.

Obama was widely seen as badly losing their Oct. 3 encounter, and many Democrats were dismayed that Obama, during the debate, failed to challenge what they consider Romney’s shift away from very conservative positions.

Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod said Sunday that Obama would be more aggressive in their next encounter, but Gillespie sought to preempt Obma’s attacks at the next debate, which will occur Tuesday.

“Even if he changes his style, and whatever political tactic the president settles on as being in his best interest for this debate, he can’t change his record and he can’t change his policies,” Gillespie said.

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