The Etch-a-Sketch-Man

by Dee Newman

Mitt Romney may be the most inauthentic man to ever walked the face of the earth. He seems to have no integrity whatsoever, consistently inconsistent.

There’s not a damn thing that he professed to believe a decade ago (Hell! even a month ago) that he now considers politically acceptable, including his most signature accomplishments – Romney Care.

Is he Mitt-the-moderate, or Mitt-the-severe-conservative?

He spent month after month campaigning that he would initiate an additional twenty percent tax cut over and above the Bush tax cuts, only to discard them as soon as the debates began, claiming his tax cuts would not actually be tax cuts, merely a tax reform plan that would have no tangible tax impact (both deficit and burden neutral) – which of course begs the question: why push for tax cuts that in the end do nothing, much less promote them as your signature campaign theme?

Romney has surrounded himself with old Bush administration neoconservative foreign policy veterans, many of them known for their role in initiating the war in Iraq. With their advice he has (up until the debates) been highly critical of the President’s foreign policy. And then, suddenly an abrupt turn around.

During the last debate, Mr. Romney not only agreed with President Obama's foreign policy decisions, he did so, with the same intensity with which he had previously and passionately derided the President's policies. In fact, the only discernable difference between the two was Romney’s inexplicable desire to spend more money on boats.

Yes, what we’ve seen in the last month is the Etch-a-Sketch-man in full operating mode, shaking off all his old extreme positions for some new more politically viable ones, trying not to alienate his base while courting moderate independent voters.