It was never a matter of ‘if’…only of ‘when‘.
Two constituencies that President Obama is holding onto about as strongly now as he did four years ago are voters under 30 and Latinos. In what is probably not a coincidence, these two constituencies are the targets for the first two major Mitt Romney Etch A Sketch pivots of the general election. After having repeatedly denounced any need for the federal government to subsidize tuition costs during the primary, Romney has now endorsed Obama’s call for extending lower rates for federally-subsidized loans. Romney says he supports the measures “in part because of the extraordinarily poor conditions in the job market.” Apparently, he has been informed of the poor job market since wrapping up the nomination, when he was still advising graduates concerned about debt to acquire a high-paying job.
On immigration, Romney is making the turn a little more slowly, as you’d expect, given the sensitivities involved in holding together his base. Romney has deputized Marco Rubio to craft “his” own version of the Dream Act, a somewhat more restrictive version of the reform that Republicans in Congress killed and Romney opposed in the primary, when he positioned himself on the party’s right on immigration. Romney is “studying” Rubio’s bill.
It’ll be interesting to see how the Tea Party crowd handles Romney’s position reversals and move toward the center over the next six months. If it’s anything similar to the way Republican newbies in the House have driven Boehner and the GOP crazy with their irrational, unworkable demands, then Romney’s got his hands full. Between teabaggers screaming for conservative purity on every issue and Democrats reminding voters of every policy position Romney currently holds or once held (it’s all on tape, Mitt…sorry), it’s should be fun to watch.
The GOP is going to have to rely on FOX and others in the conservative media to do their ‘lie and distort the truth’ routine and explain to people out there how it is that Romney never actually said what it is he said. It’ll come down to Sean Hannity saying something along the lines of, “Who you gonna believe, me or those lying YouTube videos of Mitt?”
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( The Romney source photograph is a Creative Commons licensed image from photographer Gage Skidmore. )
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“It’ll be interesting to see how the Tea Party crowd handles Romney’s position reversals and move toward the center over the next six months.”
Here’s the thing, and its come up also in talks about a VP like Cantor or Ryan to secure the Tea Party vote: He already has it! They may get pissed but as long as Romney stays not-black and not-funny named..generally not_Obama, they will vote for him. They may not like it, but they will NEVER vote for Obama. It’s sad.
@Winston. You’re right, they’ll never vote for Obama but that isn’t the problem for the GOP. Election victories are usually dependent on enthusiasm from the base. An excited and energetic base gets off their ass and votes.The danger for Romney is that his move to the center will leave many in the base discouraged and staying at home on election day.
By the time Fux News gets done with “fixing” Romney’s image, he’ll be the new Reagan.
Romney’s speach last night made him sound, for the first time, like a man of the people. Of course it was all blue sky and happy talk with no specifics, but it probably sounded pretty good to the indys who don’t like Obama and to the T-party. I am hoping that endorsing the Ryan plan will stick to Romney like poison glue.
The more that people find out how really bad the Ryan plan is for most of the middle class and for the nation the more it will reinforce how out of touch with all things and especially with the real economy he is. Telling students that they should shop around for cheeper colleges to solve the tuition rate problem and long term debt of college is just asinine. Does he not know that all acredited colleges are expensive? We aren’t talking about thousands of Harvards Mitt. Check out the cost of any state university or state college Mr. 4 car elevator.
“As it was written” “You can never go broke betting on the stupidity of the American voter!”The 2010 election is a case in point.
Awww Mitt — one big mass of Silly Putty. Mold me, make me whatever you wish . . .