The most fascinating part about Mitt Romney's latest turn to moderation is how baldly misleading it is. After five years campaigning for president as a "severely conservative" candidate, including the first half of this year's general election, the first day that he says he supports taxing the wealthy, public education and access to contraceptives just happens to be when 70 million people are watching him debate Barack Obama. This is the same person who said he'd like to make immigrants "self-deport" themselves, claimed that 47 percent of the country is dependent on government subsidy, and refused to accept a deal where one dollar of taxes would be raised for every 10 dollars of cuts. The juxtaposition doesn't make sense, but then again, Romney has always liked to change his opinions based on the audience. Like a good consultant and private equity executive, he just wants to close the deal. (I might act the same way as a real estate developer.)
Even more fascinating is that this moderation is what catapulted Romney back into contention, when it seemed unlikely he could become president. And there are a surprising number of Senate races, such as in Connecticut, Massachusetts and North Dakota, where the Republican candidates are pledging their faithfulness to bipartisanship and centrism. (I saw a TV ad last night where Scott Brown promoted his support of allowing gays to serve the military.) Of course, all campaigns have featured for many years the "turn to the center," where after winning the primary with positions loved by the party faithful, candidates temper their opinions to appeal to those alluring independent voters. But in an era when the Tea Party, gerrymandered Congressional districts, and dig-in-your-heels politics are supposedly ascendant, leading to a hyper-partisan government, it's telling that these paeans to the center are what will decide the most crucial campaigns. Moderation still appeals somewhere.
Then again, come January, the House will still be led by the likes of John Boehner and Eric Cantor, to say nothing of their GOP colleagues who are more anonymous but even more strident in their conservatism, and unchallenged this fall and for many more to come. This is probably the most unacknowledged part of the presidential race: That when either Obama or Romney take office, they'll have to work with a Congress that won't budge very far. If Obama remains, Republicans will be even more adamant in their opposition, perhaps with the Senate in hand, too; and if Romney is inaugurated, Democrats in the Senate would filibuster and filibuster. Perhaps the biggest lesson is that voting isn't a seasonal responsibility. Candidates promise to be centrist leading up to November, but then once those deciding voters check out come April 2013, we're back where we were. There needs to be a more consistent way to hold candidates to their rhetoric.
Even more fascinating is that this moderation is what catapulted Romney back into contention, when it seemed unlikely he could become president. And there are a surprising number of Senate races, such as in Connecticut, Massachusetts and North Dakota, where the Republican candidates are pledging their faithfulness to bipartisanship and centrism. (I saw a TV ad last night where Scott Brown promoted his support of allowing gays to serve the military.) Of course, all campaigns have featured for many years the "turn to the center," where after winning the primary with positions loved by the party faithful, candidates temper their opinions to appeal to those alluring independent voters. But in an era when the Tea Party, gerrymandered Congressional districts, and dig-in-your-heels politics are supposedly ascendant, leading to a hyper-partisan government, it's telling that these paeans to the center are what will decide the most crucial campaigns. Moderation still appeals somewhere.
Then again, come January, the House will still be led by the likes of John Boehner and Eric Cantor, to say nothing of their GOP colleagues who are more anonymous but even more strident in their conservatism, and unchallenged this fall and for many more to come. This is probably the most unacknowledged part of the presidential race: That when either Obama or Romney take office, they'll have to work with a Congress that won't budge very far. If Obama remains, Republicans will be even more adamant in their opposition, perhaps with the Senate in hand, too; and if Romney is inaugurated, Democrats in the Senate would filibuster and filibuster. Perhaps the biggest lesson is that voting isn't a seasonal responsibility. Candidates promise to be centrist leading up to November, but then once those deciding voters check out come April 2013, we're back where we were. There needs to be a more consistent way to hold candidates to their rhetoric.
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