Why stop flip-flopping now?
Obama vs. Romney now resembling Bush vs. Kerry — if John Kerry had been the main architect of the Iraq War.
— Eric Kleefeld (@EricKleefeld) July 2, 2012
Mitt Romney has two big problems.
First, he’s facing a team of ninja strategists who have already taken his two greatest accomplishments in life—getting filthy rich as a businessman and passing a universal health care plan as governor—and turned them into his greatest weaknesses.
Second, he is a right-wing extremist running for president after eight years when right-wing extremist tortured American values and cost us millions of jobs.
To review his extreme views:
- He wants tax breaks for the rich larger than George W. Bush’s breaks
- He feels the president can attack Iran any time for any reason
- He wants to overturn Roe v. Wade and defund Planned Parenthood taking basic reproductive health from millions of women
- He wants to write bigotry against gays and lesbians into the Constitution with an anti-gay marriage amendment
- He believes he can make life for millions of undocumented mothers, daughters and grandmothers miserable enough that they will eventually deport themselves
Because these views are so extreme, I’ve grown to believe that Mitt likes being called a flip-flopper since this is the one thing that makes him moderate. But, apparently, his internal polling must be finding that all his vacillating is destroying his credibility.
Met Romney last week.Tough O Chicago pros will be hard to beat unless he drops old friends from team and hires some real pros. Doubtful.
— Rupert Murdoch(@rupertmurdoch) July 1, 2012
Last week, Mitt met in secret with a number of VIPs and donors and the issue of immigration came up. Since President Obama announced that he would no longer be deporting DREAM-eligible undocumented students and veterans, the polls have shown the race getting away from Romney.
Again and again, pollsters say Romney needs to get somewhere near 40% of the Latino vote to have any chance to win. While immigration isn’t the only issue Latinos care about, it is highly symbolic. Romney refuses to even answer whether he would reverse the President’s decision and begin deporting law-abiding students on his first day in office.
Sensing that this issue is a loser for Mitt, Rupert Murdoch—CEO of News Corp, which owns the 24-hour-a-day infomercial for the GOP known as Fox News—pushed Romney to contest the President on this issue.
Romney said the Hispanic vote is important, noting he has Sen. Marco Rubio on the trail for him and that one of his own sons speaks Spanish, but indicated he is not going to change positions from some of what he said in the primaries.
“I know I took some positions in the primary that are” hard to contend with in a general,” Romney said, according to two sources.
“I am not going to be a flip-flopper,” he added, according to one guest.
LOL.
First of all, anyone who was pro-choice when the first iPod came out and now wants to overturn Roe v. Wade is a flip flopper, forever. So give it up, Mitt.
While that charge hurt John Kerry, it played into a larger narrative of him being weak on national defense. Barney Frank often points out that people don’t mind if politicians flip as long as they end up on the their side of the issue.
Mitt’s immigration views are untenable. Even Latino leaders in his party are saying this. My prediction is he will begin to hedge on them and soon.
The crucial thing here is that Rupert Murdoch is right. Mitt is getting terrible advice. His most visible advisor Eric Fehrnstrom yesterday contradicted the entire GOP and joined with Democrats to say the individual mandate isn’t a tax. And Mitt is clearly being advised to not change his opinion on the one issue that could most easily cost him an election. Everyone but Mitt seems to understand he needs sharper tools from the shed.
Isn’t it delicious that Mitt Romney—who is known for his penchant for layoffs, outsourcing and downsizing—may be doomed by the one layoff he can’t make?
[CC image by DonkeyHotey]
