Of all the reasons to dislike Mitt Romney--and they are starting to stack up--I wouldn't put a lack of authenticity among them. But after reading this story, I'm beginning to think that my "Mitt Romney is a big, fat liar" thought bubble could be more politely phrases as "Mitt Romney lacks authenticity."
The former Massachusetts governor pandered to voters, distorted his opponents' record and continued to show why he's the most malleable — and least credible — major presidential candidate.
And it worked.
The man who spoke hard truths to Michigan lost. Of all the reasons John McCain deserved a better result Tuesday night, his gamble on the economy stands out. The Arizona senator had the temerity to tell voters that a candidate who says traditional auto manufacturing jobs "are coming back is either naive or is not talking straight with the people of Michigan and America."
Instead of pandering, McCain said political leaders must "embrace green technologies," adding: "That's the future. That's what we want."
Romney jumped all over McCain, playing to the fears of voters in a state with the nation's highest unemployment rate. "I've heard people say that the auto jobs are gone and they're never coming back," Romney told his audiences. "Well, baloney, I'm going to fight for every single good job."
Well, geez, who wouldn't fight for "every single good job?" Every candidate, Democrat and Republican can make that pledge. The difference is whether you think the dinosaur auto industry deserves a massive bailout so they can keep producing cars the same way they have for decades. Mitt Romney agrees with that, which sounds far more like a Democrat plan than the "let the free market reign" Republicans.
And Mitt Romney didn't just pander to recession-hit Michiganders with a billion-dollar bailout, he actually talked about softening the CAFE standards proposed in the recent energy bill.
Now, I've argued on other (read: liberal) sites that regardless of whether we reduce our dependence on foreign oil or not, we will "find a way" to make things work. Liberal know-nothings scoffed at that ("have we ever run out of oil before?"), but the great thing about capitalism is that just because we haven't done something before doesn't mean someone won't figure out how to do it now. And make a profit on it.
Now, about those CAFE standards. Unlike Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and most other conservative radio hosts, I don't mind raising fuel efficiency standards since it hasn't been done since I was in about fifth grade. I dunno about other people, but I sort of think it's possible that the auto industry can improve mileage on its cars over the next 12 years, especially if they actually have to. And I don't think they have to do it by creating "deathmobiles," as Glenn Beck called fuel-efficient cars. But that's all beside the point.
Hey, speaking of flip-floppers (you know, the anti-McCain guys have spent a lot of time over the last week talking about John McCain's "flip-flops"), did you know Mitt Romney was for increasing CAFE standards? That is, before he was against it.
Less than three years ago, Romney seemed to champion higher automobile standards. "Almost everything in America has gotten more efficient in the last decade, except the fuel economy of the vehicles we drive," he said in September 2005.
As is often the case with Romney, he has changed his tone, if not his mind.
This is a man who campaigned for governor of Democratic stronghold Massachusetts as a supporter of abortion rights, gay rights and gun control — only to switch sides on those and other issues in time for the GOP presidential race. The first thing he did as a presidential contender in January was sign the same no-tax pledge an aide dismissed as "government by gimmickry" during the 2002 campaign.
He was a political independent who voted for Democrat Paul Tsongas in the 1992 Massachusetts presidential primary; now he is a Reagan conservative. He was for embryonic stem cell research; now he favors restrictions on it.
I'm still waiting to hear Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck or Hugh Hewitt ask Mitt Romney about those, but I'm not holding my breath. They love Plastic Man not because he believes in the "Reagan conservatism" they gush over but because he tells them what they want to hear.
And that makes them different from the Democrats how?
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