Romney the Etch a Sketch Man Becomes a Centrist

      If you were waiting to see it in action you finally got to see what it looks like: in the last few days Romney has done is bout face on his first issue.

      He now agrees with the President about not allowing student loan interest rates to double back to 6.8%. Of course he isn't admitting he agrees with the President but it's Obama who is urging Congress not to allow the rates to go up and the GOP Congress who wants its to go back up.

     What's fascinating is that back in February Romney himself thought they should go up. At a college a young woman asked him about it and he came back with some real crowd pleaser like "I'd love to just give out free stuff but I can't do it. If you want free stuff vote for the other guy."

      There was a piece in Think Progress that argued that Romney has been more Right wing than George W. Bush. He has been at least during the GOP primary season on immigration, campaign finance reform, and immigration. Indeed on immigration Bush actually spoke of a path to citizenship back in 2007. You certainly won't hear Romney say that even now that he's reinvented himself as a centrist.

     However we already see the change in strategy. He's no longer Mr. Severe Conservative. Now he even sounds half reasonable. In his speech after winning a bunch of states last night-in what sounded like an acceptance of the party's nomination speech, which it in effect was-he spoke of understanding the pain of average Americans who are struggling with gas prices and "never thought they would be on food stamps."

    That's about as much empathy as your allowed to show and still be a Republican. Indeed some people are arguing that it was his best speech of the campaign. What it did show is his ability to take two sides of any issue. What he's banking on is the short memories of the American people. I don't think it's going to work.  Remember the Romney Rule: everything the American people learn about Mitt Romney makes them like him less. Certainly his attempt to underestimate the people is not endearing.