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DEFINING ROMNEY. Rich Lowry's take on Mitt Romney seems very smart:
A couple of (uncommitted in '08) friends have made good points about Romney lately. One was telling me the other day that Romney is the victim of the rules changing. It used to be that it was expected that Republicans would become more conservative when they ran for the nomination, and conservatives would welcome it. But Romney has changed on so much so recently, in the age of YouTube and especially against the back-drop of the recent assault on Kerry's flip-flops, that he's getting hammered.Another friend, on the other hand, pointed out that conservatives usually don't run national races on just being conservative. They bring a flavor and a spin to their conservatism. It isn't a check-the-box exercise. They apply their conservatism to the problems of the day and come up with their own variety�Bush, Newt, and Reagan all did this. Romney hasn't yet.And I wonder if he even can. I initially expected some real strength from Romney, if for no other reason than his health care plan offered a pretty concrete achievement on a resonant issue. But given that he has to fight so hard to retain the "conservative" descriptor, there's no real way for him to plug such ideologically indistinct accomplishments. More and more, Romney's conservatism is coming out as bland and genial as his looks, and that's no way to get elected. He's not going to out-executive Giuliani, or out-conservative Gingrich. He's got to figure out his unique in with the electorate, but his desperate attempts to simply remain on the Republican island are making that look a near-impossible task.--Ezra Klein