With Mitt Romney’s semi-official entry into the 2012 race, several critics are pointing out, in near amazement, that the flip-flopping candidate from 2008 who quickly fizzled is somehow the Republican frontrunner at this early stage in the next presidential run.
It’s as if the GOP stalwarts conveniently forgot the slipperiness of Romney circa ’08 that became so apparent it generated quips from his own Republican competitors. As the LA Times put it, Romney’s convenient flip-flops on abortion and gay rights “prompted questions about whether his positions were driven by politics or conviction.”
My personal favorite was when Romney proudly recalled taking part in a 1960s civil rights march alongside his dad, then-Michigan Gov. George Romney. One problem – it later became apparent that Mitt was not at the march.
Columnist Michael Kinsley, writing in the Times, was much more blunt: “We’re all for transparency these days, and if anything is transparently clear about American politics, it is that Mitt Romney will do or say anything to become president. The best guess is that at heart he is an old-fashioned moderate, business-oriented Republican (just about the last one standing). But there’s no knowing for sure. He may have no sincere beliefs at all.”
Kinsley goes on to say that the dapper Romney has reinvented himself again — even shunning neck ties — for ’12 but still speaks in platitudes. (His campaign theme, “I believe in America,” is so vanilla that I suspect it might draw a few snickers from independent voters.)
Now that the former Massachusetts governor has decided that jobs is the focal point of America, he has already created a potential problem. “Because the last time he ran,” Kinsley said, “Romney played down his experience as a businessman and played up his recently acquired views as a social conservative, because that was what every commentator and consultant was telling him he had to do back then.
“One little difficulty with Romney’s new emphasis on his expertise — and (President) Obama’s lack thereof — about job creation is that Romney doesn’t actually say what he would do differently to create more jobs. He just repeats that ‘I spent my career in the private sector. I know how jobs are created.’ The nearest he comes to getting specific is to say that in the business world, ‘the three rules of every successful turnaround’ are ‘focus, focus, focus.’ This is Peter Pan advice, about as useful as repeating ‘I do believe in fairies.’”
Romney also doesn’t mention that many of those turnaround plans he imposed involved eliminating thousands of jobs.
But the biggest problem facing Romney, the pundits agree, is the landmark Massachusetts health care plan that he signed into law. Not only is that plan very similar to the “Obamacare” system that GOP primary voters hate, it also includes the individual mandate that conservatives believe is unconstitutional.
Romney once boasted about his health care plan, calling it the signature accomplishment of his administration. Now, well, he doesn’t mention it much. And he hypocritically calls for the repeal of the federal health care law. Another problem he will face in the primaries is not just the substance of the bill, but the signing ceremony, which was full of pomp and circumstance, a celebration of bipartisanship, with the late Ted Kennedy – a key player in hammering out the bill – at Romney’s side.
The health care anchor around Romney’s neck will only become heavier as the campaign gets going. The chief architect of the Massachusetts plan said recently that Romney’s attempt to disown the state’s health care overhaul is “largely political.” Jonathan Gruber, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also worked with Obama administration officials and Congress to craft the Affordable Care Act.
For that federal law, “Massachusetts absolutely was the model,” Gruber said. “It would have been much harder if we didn’t have a working example to show that it worked.”
As the fifth anniversary of the state law was marked on Tuesday, many Democrats amped up the tongue-in-cheek praise for “Romneycare.”
In a press release, Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer said: “We are grateful for Mitt Romney’s efforts and congratulate him on the 5-year anniversary of his health care plan. We look forward to the 5-year anniversary of the Affordable Care Act and a 10-year celebration for Romney’s model for Massachusetts.”
Romney could face a rocky road on the campaign trail. But I’ll grant him this: He sure looks like a president.
Maybe that’s all it takes.
