I think it's important to bear this in mind as there's been a lot of talk about the idea that he changed some of his positions at the debate, particularly his tax plan.
"Mitt Romney campaign surrogate Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA) admitted that the GOP presidential candidates was changing his positions and moving towards the middle in order to win over voters, during an appearance on CNN’s Starting Point on Friday morning. Gingrey’s comments, reminiscent of Romney advisor Eric Fehrnstrom’s claim that Romney would “Etch-A-Sketch” his positions after the GOP primary, came in response to the candidate’s recent claim that his 47% remarks were “completely wrong.”
“[T]he Republican, the conservative candidate in the primary, is always going to lean right and come back to the center for the general, the opposite for the Democrat,” Gingrey explained. “That’s all you are seeing here. It is very typical. We strong conservatives understand that. There are a lot of undecideds in this country…we want those votes too. So, this is campaign strategy."
http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/10/05/966031/campaign-surrogate-admits-romney-is-changing-positions-just-to-win-votes/
Newt Gingrich admits Romney wasn't honest about his tax plan in the debate:
"This morning on Meet The Press, Obama campaign adviser Robert Gibbs confronted Newt Gingrich on a fundamental inconsistency in Romney’s description of his tax plan. During the primary debates, Romney insisted that everyone in America would get a 20% tax cut, including the 1%. But last week’s during his debate with Obama, Romney insisted that his tax cut would not reduce taxes at all for wealthy Americans."
"Gingrich acknowledged the clear inconsistency, saying “I think it’s clear he changed.” He described the change as “good politics."
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/10/07/972301/gingrich-concedes-romney-misled-about-his-tax-plan-during-debates/
No doubt, the etch a sketch is turning feverishly. However, I'm concerned about the idea that some people really seemed to think he changed some positions on Wednesday. It seems that one of these may have even been the President. His "never mind" comment seemed to suggest this.
Romney did not change his tax plan. It's still the same across the board 20% tax cut without laying out a way to pay for it. When he said he has no plan to cut by $5 trillion or to give the wealthy a big tax cut this was just repackaging. It's all old wine, new bottles.
What is claim amounts to is that all of these secret loopholes that he plans to eliminate but that he won't talk about before he's elected will close much of the gap-along with the supposed revenue increase; as usual, the GOP thinks that tax cuts for the rich pay for themselves.
Again, though the point to keep in mind is he hasn't changed his position on anything. He's simply splitting hairs on characterizations. This is similar to what he tried when he spoke to the Hispanic groups a few weeks ago where he tried to sound more friendly to Latinos by saying he has no plan to round them all up and that he wouldn't reverse the President's executive order. In truth he hasn't moved from his "self-deport" primary stance in substance and continues to hang around with Kris Kobach, the architect of Papers Please legislation.
Romney will continue to do this, to obfuscate his real positions as much as possible-on Medicare, taxes, immigration, abortion, regulation. Necessarily so as his positions are so unpopular. However, it's the job of the Democrats from the President on down to call him on this. I think maybe Obama himself was a little thrown by Romney's aggressive obfuscations, thinking that he realy had reversed his own position. In his next debate, hopefully they will help him be prepared for Romney's impressive myth making abilities.
I still don't think the President did so bad in the first debate. Running out the clock does sometimes work-though no doubt sometimes it's very much the wrong move. Many will argue that it was last Wednesday.
What you have to admit is that in some ways his strategy worked as there were no big gaffes or gotcha moments. What's funny about the debate is that all anyone says about it is that Romney won, they don't discuss the substance of the debate, and there were no unforced errors by the President.
There actually were for Romney like when he admitted he supports a voucher program for Medicare and that he won't accept even 10% in tax hikes to bring down the deficit.
Nevertheless, the President needed to push back a little on Romney. It's striking how little he confronted Romney in that debate. In the next one, he doesn't need a lobotomy, but he has to challenge Romney on certain vital points. He can't have carte blanche to say anything without challenge again. One thing he has to be called on is his tax plan that does indeed cost $5 trillion to the deficit and does favor the rich at the expense of the middle class.
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