Romney Reveals Newest Flip-Flop

Republicans, still smarting and searching for leadership in a leaderless party, should take a look at Mitt Romney’s latest flip-flop. Sure, bailouts are unpopular with Republican voters, and most voters across the spectrum these days. So Romney, as you may have seen, penned an editorial in The New York Times opposing a federal rescue for Detroit.

“If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed,” wrote Romney. “Don’t ask Washington to give shareholders and bondholders a free pass — they bet on management and they lost.”

Romney is probably correct. But when you think back to his presidential run, something doesn’t quite fit. Where is the talk about all those jobs? Didn’t Romney win the Michigan primary by criticizing John McCain for telling Michigan’s hardest-hurt their jobs weren’t coming back? Didn’t he practically set the pandering record there?

Recall the deep fondness Ronmey felt for the state he left as a teenager, even declaring on the campaign trail about Michigan that “The skies are cloudy all day, the trees are all the right height, people talk without an accent and most of the cars on the road are American-made — as they ought to be.” He didn’t need to mention that he drove a Saab and a BMW before recently buying a Mustang. He also told and retold a favorite story there about how his sons gave him a 1962 Rambler for his 60th birthday last year that had to be pushed home. He wasn’t entirely aware that struggling middle-class families don’t purchase non-functioning cars for their birthdays but hey, it was so endearing. The point is, Romney became the champion of the auto industry last January — this year — by promising those people he would get those jobs back as president. There was no talk of job training, the realities of globalization or the need for restructuring after filing for bankruptcy.

Yes — to gay rights, gun control, abortion and campaign finance reform, please add his prescriptions for the auto industry to the list of Romney’s frequent, flagrant flip-flops.