He May Be an Etch a Sketch But Romney is (Far) Right

     The level of pandering on the part of Romney is just astonishing. No one has ever been as good at shifting his own opinions to the point that he flatly contradicts what he said before, months ago, weeks ago, days, ago, even seconds ago.

     In the Denver debate that everyone gave to Romney is a landslide, he managed to in one sentence both take credit for passing ObamaCare in Massachusetts while criticizing the President for passing it nationally-even though Romney had urged him to do just that in 2009-and promising to end it on his "first day in office"-which is already going to be the busiest day in human history; he has to not only do that but declare China a currency manipulator, shut down Planned Parenthood and have the Democrats over the White House for a bipartisan beer summit.

    Last night the number of past positions he managed to contradict was breathtaking. The obvious one was his acceptance of a timetable in Afghanistan after attacking the President on that for a year.

    "During last night's foreign policy debate in the U.S. presidential election campaign, the Mitt Romney of the Republican primaries disappeared."

    "Romney's April criticism of Obama's decision to commit the United States military to helping oust Muammar Qaddafi in Libya disappeared. Missing was a promise on his website to reduce foreign aid by $100 million. Romney's past criticism of what he called Obama's rushed exit from Afghanistan vanished as well."

    "Given his lurch to the center on domestic policy, that comes as no surprise. But it does not make Romney's record - or his willingness to change positions - a nonissue. If Romney wins this election, it will be arguably the latest and greatest shift to the center in presidential campaign history."

     "Last night the new Romney praised Obama's toppling of Qaddafi, said he supported the president's policy in Afghanistan and agreed that the administration's economic sanctions on Iran were "crippling."

     http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/23/rohde-romney-idUSL1E8LN52K20121023

      As the author, David Rodhe argues, at the end of the debate we know less about Romney's positions than the beginning. Yet, if Romney does win-and the pundits never tire of assuring us he can; Rasmussen was out with a poll which showed Romney up by 4 points, though Rasmussen is least reliable late in an election-he showed something similar for McCain in 2008-what would it say about our political process and our electorate? Nothing too good.

      For the way to know what Romney's foreign policy is you have to talk to his advisers not him and Paul Ryan-who collectively have the least amount of gravitas on a Presidential ticket in memory.

      Who advises Romney on foreign policy? John Bolton and his Neocon friends. Romney hasn't move to the Right in principle but is simply playing politics. If he were to win-I still don't think so, and Nate Silver's "Nowcast" gives him under a 30% chance at that right now-it will be on the most Right wing ticket in over 100 years with a Congress that is the most Right wing that is much further to the Right than Romney even.

      It's the old song: Meet the new boss same as the old boss. Meet the new GOP President same as the old GOP President. Some as it's ever done.

      Are we going to get fooled again?