The Base Player

Here’s what is so sad: Apparently it was much more important that Mitt Romney open up about his faith, at least to the “base” true believers, than it was for him to answer a simple question about torture.

There he was yesterday, assuring the voters, at least the Christian fundamentalist ones, that he adheres to their standards of morality.

Morality can be a slippery concept. This is the same man who refused to be pinned down on whether waterboarding should be an instrument of U.S. policy.

To review, waterboarding is that torture technique that has violated international law almost as long as there has been international law.

It is also a technique that was routinely used by the sadistic zealots who were abandoning all this country stood for (the past tense is intentional), in the effort to squeeze out information, of dubious value, from captured terrorists, or those mistaken to be terrorists.

But would Romney condemn its use during the last Republican debate? Nope, he wasn’t willing to discuss specifics. Of course, he also didn’t discuss specifics about his Mormon religion in his speech about how it would and would not affect his presidency.

Mitt Romney has had to battle, since he began this latest quest, the accusation that his positions on the various issues are policies of expedience. It’s often torturous, which might explain a lot.

In fairness, as he made clear Thursday, his faith is unwavering. But what happens if the speech isn’t well received? What will he say next?