Everyone knew, as Mitt Romney’s health care speech approached last week, that the Democrats were ready to pounce and say that the Massachusetts governor had reached a new level of pandering and flip-flopping. They eagerly anticipated that Romney would renounce his Massachusetts plan, which he had trumpeted for years and which served as the model for President Obama’s health care reforms.
But when Romney chose a middle ground, saying a health care plan with an individual mandate was right for Massachusetts but not for the country, he could never have anticipated the antagonistic reaction from fellow conservatives.
The supposed GOP front-runner had possibly seen his campaign end before it got started, according to Human Events. Erick Erickson wrote: “With a full embrace of Romneycare and obfuscation behind states’ rights, Romney may have peaked (on Thursday). Time will tell, but the reaction of many conservatives who previously supported him and those leaning his way now, is decidedly hostile.”
At the Wall Street Journal, the editorial board said Romney had demonstrated serious flaws as a presidential candidate and a potential president. Their blistering attack concluded: “Mr. Romney is compromised and not credible. If he does not change his message, he might as well try to knock off Joe Biden and get on the Obama ticket.”
Conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg, writing in the Los Angeles Times, took a more measured approach, saying that Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich’s recent defense or past support of some form of an individual mandate suggests a “policy logjam” among Republican candidates. That’s kinda like saying the GOP, so far, has no plausible candidate.
Romney’s fundraising prowess may save his candidacy but a lot of Republican leaders appear ready to write him off.
Meanwhile, of course, the Democrats have piled on, with the national party calling him a
The Democratic National Committee created its own mock power-point presentation that demonstrated the numerous times throughout Romney’s career, as recently as 2008, when he expressed support for healthcare plans containing an individual mandate.
“While many have accused Mitt Romney of being duplicitous,” the DNC said, “he could not have been more plain spoken than when he said in 2008 ‘I like mandates.’”
Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer joined the fray, asserting that “Romney’s speech is a clear sign that he is entirely without conviction. A policy that’s very similar to the one he proposed as governor of Massachusetts, defended as a 2008 primary candidate, and encouraged other states to adopt, he’s now calling to repeal.”
“But Romney’s pandering to the Republican base has caused him to flip-flop on more than just his own health care law,” a Brewer press release continued. “He now supports eliminating prescription drug discounts for seniors and allowing insurance companies to discriminate based on existing conditions. In fact, he even endorsed the GOP budget proposal that would end Medicare as we know it.”
At least Romney is ahead of Gingrich on that last point – at least in the eyes of Republican primary voters.
See the next post for perhaps the most unlikely GOP candidate of all.
