Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney offered a tax cut plan aimed at the general electorate rather than toss red meat to Republican primary voters.

   The Romney camp denies its call to eliminate the capital gains tax is a contradiction from his view in 1996 that getting rid of the capital gains tax in its entirety was a bad idea.

   Presidential candidate Romney wants capital gains to go away for those making more than $200,000.

    In 1996, Romney had opposed getting rid of capital gains as part of the flat tax plan of Steve Forbes.

    The flat tax would have hurt the middle class in more dramatic ways by getting rid of their favorite deductions for home mortgage interest and the payment of local property taxes.

     Manchester pollster Dick Bennett said this issue won't cause him the flip-flop problem that others will.

    ``He's doing so well in the polls thanks to an avalanche of good advertising but most voters don't know yet he's got a lot of explaining to do over his past views,'' Bennett said.

    ``My view is before this is over, Rudy Giuliani won't miss the opportunity to go after Romney on all this stuff.''

-30-