Flip-flopping: Do We Care?

Apparently there’s a lot of heat about flip-floppers in the Republican presidential race.

Particularly over Mitt Romney.  And people like eyeon08 don’t like it.

But Patrick Ruffini calls for a reality check.  Of course the candidates are flip-flopping.  They are trying to win the support of the Republican base in 2007.  So they are trimming their sails to catch the wind. 

But don’t worry too much that they’ll tack back.

After his public conversion and being pilloried as a flip-flopper, do you seriously think that Romney can walk back his pro-life position without destroying himself? Does anyone actually think that Romney would be so stupid as to advance public funding of elections after running as the enemy of BCRA [McCain Feingold campaign reform]? If Romney runs and manages to get elected as a conservative, why would he revert to a non-winning position?

Ruffini takes a look at recent presidents and finds that they governed pretty well as they campaigned.

Slippery as he was, Clinton ran as a Third Way Democrat and governed that way. Bush the Father was the mixed bag we expected him to be. Once he became pro-life, he stayed pro-life. But no one expected him to be Ronald Reagan ("kinder, gentler nation") and he wasn’t. And what you saw was what you got in Ronaldus Maximus.

So let’s relax and sit back and let the politicians continue with their sweet talking.  Will we or won’t we?  Well, honey, Ah’m not sure that Ah’ve even thought about that.