Empty Hugo Boss
by digby
Most smart people I know think that Mitt Romney is the only possible GOP challenger who could give Obama a race. But I honestly don't think he'll get the nomination, much less win the election. He is out of central casting and has the "business experience" so prized by Americans (who often confuse a wealthy playboy's sinecures with entrepreneurial genius) so on paper he seems to be hard to beat. But the truth is that there is something shifty and just plain wrong about the guy that I don't think can be overcome.
Here's one more piece of evidence that the overwhelming sense of mistrust in this man is well founded. After having lurched back to the center after his disgraceful rightwing pander in 2008 he is now bouncing back and forth like a tennis ball. Today it was revealed that he has "revised" his autobiography:
The first rewrite excises a relatively even-handed assessment of the 2009 economic-stimulus package. In the original, Romney wrote that it "will accelerate the timing of the start of the recovery, but not as much as it could have." The paperback pronounces the stimulus "a failure," and blasts Obama's "economic missteps" with conservative red-meat language — for example: "This is the first time government has declared war on free enterprise."
The other major change comes in a chapter on health care. In the original hardcover, Romney tried to carefully distinguish between the Massachusetts law and the national version that was nearing passage as he wrote.
But the Massachusetts model has become Romney's bête noire among conservatives, who loathe the national reform they call "Obamacare." The rewritten paperback swings much harder, proclaiming that "Obamacare will not work and should be repealed," and "Obamacare is an unconstitutional federal incursion into the rights of states."
Other additions in that section blame the Massachusetts legislature for altering his plan, and the current Democratic administration of Governor Deval Patrick for botching the implementation.
Asked about the changes, Eric Fehrnstrom, spokesperson for Romney's Free and Strong America PAC, responded by e-mail: "The book was originally written in the months immediately following President Obama's inauguration. A lot has occurred over the last two years, and these updates reflect those happenings."
Uhm yeah, but the past didn't change, did it?
The comment by his spokesman is so illustrative of the man himself. "Well sure, we said something completely different when everyone thought that Obama was riding high and it was important to not seem to be too very different from him. But now the electorate is very polarized and it's not so popular for a Republican to identify in any way with his policies. Surely you can't expect him to have any principles about these matters?"
There is something wrong with Mitt Romney. Regardless of how good he looks in his suit, it's clearly empty --- and people can just feel it. But who knows? Republicans aren't really all that choosy are they?
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