Saturday, October 6, 2012

"Which Romney will voters get?"

Ezra Klein has a tremendous article which tries to divine what kind of president Mitt Romney would be.  Given the contrasts among the positions Romney held in 1994 when running against Ted Kennedy, in 2002 when he was elected governor, in the 2012 primaries, and at the debate, it's a valid question.  Romney has presented himself to the left of Kennedy and the right of Rick Santorum on various issues at various times, so how can anyone know for sure how he would lead?

The ultimate conclusion Klein reaches is that Romney will be shaped by his circumstances, just like he always has.  Klein writes:
"One thing Romney emphasized over and again was the need to hammer out his policy agenda through negotiations with Congress. And that, I think, provides the answer. If Romney is facing a Democratic Congress that demands compromise in return for votes — the same situation he faced in Massachusetts — he’ll be more like the Massachusetts moderate he presented as last night. If he’s facing a Republican Congress that’s pulling him to the right and threatening to reject his proposals and force him into a primary in 2016, he’ll be more like the candidate we saw in this year’s  primaries and throughout much of this campaign."

1 comment:

nyb said...

I'll just leave this here.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/romney-proudly-explains-how-hes-turned-campaign-ar,29845/