We all know politicians
tell us voters what we want to hear, that's how they get elected, but Romney
stands out as an eerily special case. What
troubled me the most during this debate and troubles voters from Fairfield,
California to Bangor, Maine is Mitt Romney's total lack of political conviction. "Flip-Flopper" is a term given to politicians
who change their minds on one or two issues; but this is different. How can
anyone argue with someone who actually shifts positions during a debate?
By now, most voters have witnessed the Zelig-like Mitt Romney awkwardly transforming his political "principles" to conform to his audience. We all saw the video of Aristocrat Mitt and his wealthy supporters deriding middle-class Americans. On the Spanish-language network, Univision, Mitt Romney, clearly wearing brown-face make-up and speaking to an audience of bussed-in supporters, said he wants a "Republican version" of the immigration DREAM Act, a truly oxymoronic concept.
"I'm not
going to be rounding people up and deporting them out of the country, we're
going to put in place a permanent solution." Details, of course, to be announced later. He then bragged about being the grandfather
of Obamacare. That is quite different
from his oft-repeated pledge to "repeal Obamacare on Day One" of his
presidency. During last Wednesday's
debate, Romney revealed his latest position, he would keep all the good
components of Obamacare, that everybody likes, and just repeal some
non-specific bad bits. Questioning
Romney's many formless plans, Obama said: "At some point, I think the American
people have to ask themselves, is the reason that Governor Romney is keeping
all these plans to replace secret because they're too good?"
During the debate, President Obama pointed-out that Romney's budget plan to extend the Bush-era tax cuts, double-down with an additional $5 trillion in tax cuts, increase the military budget by $2 trillion, and still balance the federal budget, just didn't add up. Instead of defending his obviously defective plan, Romney went into shape-shifter mode, insisting he never proposed those cuts, which are on his website, but if he did, he would balance them by eliminating some unidentified tax deductions.
Obama countered that there are not enough deductions available to equal such cuts. Then, Romney actually said this: "What I've said is I won't put in place a tax cut that adds to the deficit. That's part one. So there's no economist that can say Mitt Romney's tax plan adds $5 trillion if I say I will not add to the deficit with my tax plan." So there you have it: Romney's tax plan won't add to the deficit because he says so and no economist can possibly refute Mitt's magical words.
Romney's
calculations seem good enough for his trusting, faithful supporters, but voters
possessing basic math skills remain highly skeptical. I only wish President Obama had uttered that
famous line from the movie, Billy Madison: Mr.
Romney, "what you just said is the most insanely idiotic thing I have ever
heard. At no point in your incoherent rambling response were you even close to
anything that could be considered a rational thought. We are all now dumber for having had listened
to it." Well, not ALL of us are dumber.