Romney: The quintessential weathervane

Fellow Republican Jon Huntsman called him a “perfectly lubricated weathervane.” Others are less precise and call him a flip-flopper or “triangulator.” But for a match-winning takedown of Mitt Romney, there’s Robert Cramer’s commentary, “Why Character and Core Values Could Prove Decisive in Battle for Presidency.”

As the title indicates, the article focuses on politicians being consistent about core values and principles, and by way of contrast, highlights Romney:

Romney has never seen a position he couldn’t change if he determined it would be to his advantage to do so. He thinks of politics as a business marketing project, where you say what you think you need to in order to maximize sales. Romney doesn’t think of voters as citizens to be engaged — he thinks of them as customers to be manipulated.

As Massachusetts Governor, Romney was pro-choice — now he is anti-choice.

Romney was the author of the Massachusetts health care plan that in many respects served as the model for Obama’s own health care plan. Now he wants to repeal “Obamacare.”

Romney once refused to sign the “no new tax pledge.” Now he has signed the “no new tax pledge.”

Romney favored extension of the assault weapons ban. Now he opposes extension of the assault weapon ban.

Once he said the TARP “was the right thing to do.” Now he says he opposed it.

Right after the economy collapsed he said he favored an economic stimulus program; now he says he opposed the stimulus bill.

Once Romney said he believed that human activity contributed to global warming; now he says he doesn’t think we know what causes global warming.

One day he was emphatically neutral on Ohio Governor Kasich’s union-busting legislation — that was ultimately “vetoed” by the Ohio voters. The next day he one hundred percent supported that legislation.

Romney is a guy who, when called on his flip-flops and inconsistencies, said: “I’m running for office, for Pete’s sake.”

To employ another sports metaphor — that’s game, set, and match.