Mitt Romney says changing positions can be a good thing

I wonder if this photo/headline combination was a purposeful, editorial decision. It's a nice combination.

We have the headline, "changing positions can be a good thing," combined with the image of Romney who appears to be mid sentence, creating the impression that he is actually saying that thing as the photo is being taken, combined with the guy behind him seemingly rubbing his eye in tired frustation as if to say "I can't believe he just said that."

Then there is the story itself. The entire article (perhaps better described as a blurb), is about a voter in New Hampshire asking Romney about the "flip flop" accusations. Essentially the voter is saying he wants Romney to embrace that, to say, in the voter's words, "Do you want a president who’s inflexible? Or someone who adjusts as more information comes in?"

It's too bad Romney isn't running against George W. Bush. It's really amazing how the argument for Kerry over Bush is now the argument for Romney over [insert other GOP candidate here].

I suppose we should look for this to become part of the narrative of the Romney campaign. He's not a flip flopper, he's a smart guy who adjusts to new information.

I would like the Romney campaign to try an experiment. They should have John Kerry show up at a single event in New Hampshire and pretend to be Mitt Romney. He could give Romney's stump speech and answer questions after, just to see if anyone notices that it's Kerry and not Romney.

political deception of the day - Romney French ad

Here's a fun political TV ad. A liberal super PAC called American LP put together this video featuring Mitt Romney speaking French. They added in the text of quotes from Romney advocating for more liberal political positions in the past (i.e. pro-choice, pro-gay rights, etc.).

Deception is happening on a couple levels here.



First, I wonder how many people will think the text is an actual translation and not get the fact that the group is only doing this to tap into American (and more so conservative) Franco-phobia. I suppose it doesn't really matter. They actually don't need the text to make the ad effective. The only thing viewers are going to take away from it is Mitt Romney is speaking French. And a lot of GOP primary voters will not like that.

Amazingly, liberals are turning Romney into Kerry.

Second, is the fact that TJ Walker, the founder of American LP, referred to Romney as the "only sane, rational candidate" on the GOP side and said, "The mere fact that we can show him speaking French fluently, we believe, is going to irritate [Republican] primary voters."

It seems liberals are starting to launch attacks on Romney in this year's version of Rush Limbaugh's Operation Chaos.

Walker at the very least implies that Romney would be an acceptable president or at least an acceptable candidate and yet attacks him. There is an element of dishonesty in that, to compliment Romney out of one side of your mouth and criticize him out of the other.

Finally, there is the open secrecy of it all. How many voters who see this ad are going to realize that it is coming from the Democratic side and that it was made because liberal groups see Romney as the candidate most likely to be able to defeat Obama next year? It doesn't matter that PACS have to disclose in their ads that they are responsible for the content of the message. "Paid for by American LP" has no meaning unless every voter who sees it takes the time to look up that group and critically examine sender motivation in order to fully understand the intent of the ad.

Obamney

Man, conservatives really dislike Mitt Romney. I don't get it.

This photo is from a post on Mediaite. I suppose one of the most insulting things a conservative can do (in their minds) is to compare you to Barack Obama. I'll never understand the degree of animosity they feel toward Obama, but I can't even begin to grapple with the conservative hatred for Romney.

This morning as I was grading portfolios I had this great discussion from Fora on as background noise, Paul O'Neill and Jesse LaGreca (moderated by Ron Suskind). One of the points made in the discussion by Paul O'Neill is that the one thing we lack at the moment is a figure with true political courage, so we end up with policy made between the 40 yard lines, so to speak. In other words, we are doomed to a series of bland moderates with no real convictions or desire to push monumental changes to fix our current problems (paging President Romney).

This image is a sort of visual representation of O'Neill's point. Obama is in the 40 yard line on the left-wing of the field and Romney is inside the 40 on the right-wing of the field. The difference is that Romney at this point seems like he will say whatever is necessary to get elected. Obama's not a political chameleon.

Romney = Kerry

Did someone at the Huffington Post purposely put John Kerry's name beside a picture of Mitt Romney? Or is this just a happy mistake?