Mitt Romney Can't Afford Any More Flip-Flops
His shifts on the Ohio unionizing bill have done little to counteract arguments he's a political animal who lacks conviction
By Molly Ball
Oct 26 2011
FAIRFAX, Va. -- Plenty of voters already suspect that Mitt Romney is a calculating, politically driven candidate. And then he goes and proves it.
On Tuesday, he told reporters in Ohio he had no opinion on the ballot measures that will go before the state's voters in a couple of weeks, including one that would cement restrictions on collective bargaining. But a few months ago, he'd expressed support for the same initiative. The difference? In the interim, the measure has become broadly unpopular and appears likely to lose.
On Wednesday, Romney appeared in Northern Virginia and tried to pass the whole thing off as a misunderstanding.
"Oh, I'm sorry if I created any confusion regarding that," Romney told reporters at the headquarters of the Fairfax County Republican Party. "I fully support Governor [John] Kasich's, I think it's called Question 2 in Ohio. Fully support that. ... I am 110 percent behind Governor Kasich and in support of that."
The potential confusion, he said, came from his stance on the other GOP-backed Ohio ballot question, which would repudiate state and federal health-care mandates. That's the one Romney -- who once imposed such a mandate on the people of Massachusetts -- meant to say he was staying out of: "I've said that that should be up to individual states. I of course took my state in one direction. They may want to go in a different direction. I don't want to tell them what I think they ought to do in that regard. ... It was with regard to that issue that I didn't want to make a commitment."...
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/10/mitt-romney-cant-afford-any-more-flip-flops/247414/
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