Is Romneycare Mitt’s Iraq War? From TPM Reader WB …
I was volunteering for Kerry when he made the comment about how he would have authorized the use of force in Iraq even knowing what we knew then. I still vividly remember the anguished conversations I had with fellow Kerry volunteers on the bus ride from RI to NH about the comments.
Is Romney flip-floppery just impossible to square with the GOP brand? TPM Reader CL says yes …
I think JR is right that the essence of the attack on Kerry was that he was inconsistent, flip-flopper, whatever. But I disagree that this is unimportant in the current election.
Ann Coulter says Romney campaign spokesperson Andrea Saul must be fired for touting Romneycare.
Mitt Romney on that now infamous photo of him and his Bain partners back in the day:
Not content to let Mars get all the attention, Earth shows what it’s got. Impressive.
From TPM Reader JR …
I read Josh’s editor’s blog post excerpting from an e-mail from reader EW on the John Kerry fiasco of saying he would’ve voted for war on Iraq even without WMDs.
And it floored me, because I long ago totally forgot about that, and indeed I’m sure at the time, in the heat of political battle, I belittled it in my own mind. I’m sure at the time I just rationalized it away, or else I’d remember it today as the same kick in the gut that EW remembered.
We tend to get caught up on personalities and missteps. But structural factors are always helpful to return to.
Two worth considering. Read More
It may seem like Romney press secretary Andrea Saul today went dramatically off-message. Or perhaps it looked like the campaign itself did a sudden about face. But look a little closer and Romney’s been sidling back up to the notion that he’s a health care reform pioneer for a while now, trying to reclaim some advantage for his bringing universal care to Massachusetts.
Saul’s comments today finally took it far enough for everyone to take notice. Check out the full piece here.
TPM Reader EW thinks so …
Watching the Romney healthcare fiasco unfold today reminded me of the moment in August ’04 when John Kerry said that if he’d known no WMDs would be found in Iraq, he’d still have voted for war. For Kerry volunteers on the ground like me, that was a total kick in the gut. We’d been working for this guy for months, were motivated more by a dislike of the opponent than a love of the candidate, and then suddenly he steps all over the primary rallying point for his base.
I remembered it being somewhere around this time in August, so I looked it up. August 9th, 2004.