"A very polished performer"

Yesterday, Mitt Romney was on ThisWeek with George Stephanopoulos and let me tell you, this guy is slicker than goose shit sliding down a tin horn. He's handsome, devout, married to a beautiful wife who has given him five strapping sons and he's had both a very lucrative private career and successful public career. He looks like he was plucked from central casting for a movie about the President. Except this movie is about the perfect president who at night slips away to the confines of a secret lab where his face plate is popped open and his circuitry and programming are modified.

One of my first choices for "fantasy dinner guest"; George Will, coolly dismissed Romney as a "very polished performer"; high praise indeed. In 2006 Romney got all his ducks in a row to run for president. He changed his views on abortion (then: pro-choice/now: pro-life), signed on for a life-long membership in the NRA and shuffled away from his earlier support of gay rights distancing him from any position that could offend the conservative base. It was recently reported in the Miami Herald that he was heckled at a campaign appearance by a man who accused him of being a "pretender" and "not knowing the Lord". Romney responded "One of the great things about this land is that we have people of different faiths and different religions, but we need to have a person of faith lead the country.'' The audience gave him a standing ovation. Case in point: the content of his answers to divisive questions are frighteningly calculated for a specific audience. One of the more revealing portions of his interview with George Stephanopoulos concerned gays in the military:

Stephanopoulos: That current policy [Don't Ask, Don't Tell] labels homosexuality as a defect. Is that what you believe?

Mitt Romney: You know, I'm not going to suggest that I'm in any way a psychologist. That's a decision a psychologist would have to tell you and I'm not going to weigh in on that.

Granted, this is not an election issue, but it speaks volumes about a man running for president in the 21st century. The fact that he will not "weigh in" by declaring the Department of Defense's definition of homosexuality as medieval is repugnant and that you need a "psychologist" to make a determination on gayness is ludicrous as well. Take a look at the interview or better yet, read the transcript. It's an illuminating look at a candidate who appears to be changing tack to catch the hot air of far right social conservatives.

Oh yeah, and now McCain wants to overturn Roe vs. Wade. Are the Republicans so hell bent on giving it away to the Democrats in '08 that Giuliani the only choice for centrists, much less secular libertarians? Okay, now back to the comedy.