Mitt Romney is trying to walk a delicate line in re: the current president of the United States, and with good reason. With the retirement of Orrin Hatch, more than a few Beehive State Republicans suddenly woke up to see the next senator from Utah in the mirror. www.foxnews.com/…
To simultaneously be the “conscience” of the party who “stood up” to Trump in 2016 and still appeal to the president’s base, he’s performing some impressive verbal and ideological gymnastics. 2012’s “self-deporter,” who morphed into 2014’s "surprisingly reasonable" champion of comprehensive immigration reform, is now painting himself as “more conservative than Trump” on immigration, calling for the ouster of Dreamers.
His signature inconsistency remains consistent.
But Romney’s most difficult trick, worthy of any athlete competing in the 2002 Olympic games he “turned around,” is the balancing act he’s trying to pull off vis-a-vis Trump himself, the man Romney has called a “phony,” a “fraud,” a “con man,” a “bully” and "very, very not-smart.” And that was before Charlottesville.
Now, however, he’s trying to win a Republican primary in 2018, when fealty to Trump is the sine qua non of success in the GOP. This has led to tortured statements that political journalists will spend hours and pages trying to untwist.
His principal brag is that he’s said things about Trump, and he promises to do so again.
"There are times when the president may have said something that is either racist, or anti-woman, that is divisive," he asserted. "And if that happens, I’ll call him out on it."
But, two years ago, Romney wasn’t sternly pointing out unfortunate gaffes. He directly and unequivocally declared Donald Trump unfit for the office.
That clear line in the sand can save reporters following the Utah primary a lot of time and skull sweat, because it narrows the number of questions the candidate needs to answer to two, maximum. The first:
“Mr. Romney, is Donald Trump fit to be president of the United States?”
It’s a yes-or-no, and reporters shouldn’t accept hemming and hawing in response. Yes. Or. No.
And, should the candidate say yes, only one follow-up is required:
“In 2016, you said Mr. Trump, and I quote, ‘has neither the temperament nor the judgment to be president.’ What words or actions in the past 16 months led you to believe he is fit to serve as president?”
There you go, scribes. That should free up some time for you to cover some candidates who might possibly believe a single word that comes out of their own mouths.
Happy to help.
Utterly unrelated addendum: Sunday night in the Kos Katalogue What's New post, Dixiecollie suggested it was time for a new episode of “These Guys” reflecting recent, um, complications in the president’s life. I couldn’t agree more.
On second thought, I guess this is barely related, in that Mr. Romney briefly appears in the video.
Should you have difficulty seeing the embedded vid, a direct link is here.