Mitt's Magical Mystery Tour Continues

Ok, we’re just going to say this about Mitt Romney…

…never in the history of American politics has there been a candidate who has so blatantly and unabashedly reversed his position on core issues for the sole purpose of winning an election.  

Tonight we tuned in to witness the third and final presidential debate.  The subject matter was supposed to be foreign policy.  A debate on foreign policy generally requires that the two candidates explain and defend their divergent views on…foreign policy.  But Mitt Romney decided that tonight was the night that he would effectively disavow all the hawkish policy statements he had made in the past and adopt the president's positions on most foreign policy issues.  In fact if it were not for the back and forth on a few economic issues that wheedled their way into the conversation there would not have been a debate at all.

Romney’s performance was stunning.  The hawkish bluster was gone.  Romney used the word “peace” so many times we were waiting for him to break out a bong and a bag of hash. 

Romney reversed himself on so many key foreign policy issues that we don’t have the space to list them all here.  The reversal that most caught the attention of the press was Romney’s u-turn on the president’s policy for leaving Afghanistan in 2014.  Romney has consistently criticized the president for setting a time certain for the withdrawal.  Tonight he parroted the president’ s own words saying  that as president he would pull our troops out in 2014 because it is time for the Afghans to take responsibility for their own security.       

The Romney Campaign said that their debate strategy going in was to avoid any major gaffs and appear moderate, reasonable and presidential.  There was no mention of defending one’s positions or standing behind one’s core values.  We found this casual admission that the campaign intentionally threw the right wing neocons that handed Romney the nomination under the bus…unsettling.

The president was strong tonight.  He defended his record and his policies going forward.  He was very effective in drawing the contrast between Romney’s comments this evening versus the things Romney has been saying for months out on the stump.

 The president looked strong and steady.  But tonight was all about Romney.  Mitt Romney waffled again…some would say lied…and hoped the voters wouldn’t notice.

A CBS flash poll of likely voters said the president won tonight's debate by a 53%-23% margin.  A CNN poll gave the debate to the president by 20 points and a PPP poll by 8 points.  It was a very good night for the president.    

It used to be that a politician believed in something and spent the campaign trying to convince voters to buy into his position.  But the Romney campaign has completely altered that strategy in favor of a more “flexible” approach…say whatever it is you need to say to close the deal.

We miss having George W. Bush around.  At least with the Bush Doctrine you knew where the guy stood on the issues.