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Matt graciously endorses my point about the impossibility of knowing the "real" Mitt Romney and adds this:
It's not as if once in office Romney is going to blossom into a kind of politician totally different from the one he's currently campaigning as. We're learning about his willingness to adopt whichever views are most politically expedient. And doing something like going back on the reckless "no taxes" pledge he's made on the campaign trail would probably be pretty costly. Obviously, flipping back around on abortion or gay rights would look absurd and there'd be no reason to do it. The Mitt we're gonna get if he wins is substantially the one we're looking at during this campaign season.I'm not sure about that. As Ryan Lizza pointed out in his excellent New Yorker profile of Romney the man has a pretty bottomless well of chutzpah:
Politicians tend to pander, especially during the primary season. Romney’s chief opponent, Rudy Giuliani, also has a history as a pro-gun-control, pro-gay-rights Republican. But while Giuliani simply downplays his record on those issues, Romney sells himself as a true convert. He not only shifts positions; he often claims to be the most passionate advocate of his new stances. It’s one of the reasons that his metamorphosis from liberal Republican to committed right-winger seems so jarring. In 1994, in his race for the Senate, he didn’t simply argue that he was a defender of gay rights; he claimed to be a stronger advocate than his opponent, Edward Kennedy. Today, he’s not just a faithful conservative but the only Republican candidate who represents “the Republican wing of the Republican Party.So, while I agree we're not too likely to get a pro-choice Romney ever again, we might get a sudden re-embrace of, say, health care reform or a newly moderate position on Iraq if he wins the Republican nomination. A couple of prominent tacks left like that would make him a more formidable opponent and, really, if people aren't already convinced he's a complete opportunist will they ever be? Ridiculous as a newly moderate Romney would be, he has shown an impressive ability to advocate passionately for things he recently abhorred and has had a remarkable degree of success doing it. He already looks absurd and, if he continues to embrace that he might just succeed in neutralizing it.--Sam Boyd
