First there was George Bush's Compassionate Conservatism, a cute name for small bore progressive policies. Then came Sarah Palin's Commonsense Conservatism which is just good old fashion plain old conservatism. Yesterday, Mitt Romney introduced us to a new brand of conservatism... Contortion Conservatism.
Contortion Conservatism is basically twisting yourself and conservatism into a pretzel as you try to unapologetically explain away your very un-conservative past deeds. In Romney's case, he is trying to make the support of individual mandates and RomneyCare look like sprang forth from a TEA Party movement.
Needless to say, Romney's debut of Contortion Conservatism was VERY unsuccessful. Even, the National Review (many Romney fans there) panned it.
National Review: Mitt Romney just gave a more articulate defense of Obamacare than President Obama ever has. He continues to believe that the individual mandate is a good idea, despite the fact that the “free-rider” problem is a myth. His effort to make a distinction between Romneycare and Obamacare was not persuasive: If anything, he convincingly made the opposite case, that Romneycare and Obamacare are based on the same fundamental concept.
In recent months, Romney has claimed that Romneycare was a specific solution for the specific needs of Massachusetts. But in his remarks, he did not name one specific aspect of the Massachusetts health-care environment that is unique to that state. If there are no important differences between the Massachusetts health-care system and that of other states, why shouldn’t he believe that Romneycare should be the model for every other state? [MORE]In a sane and commonsense world, Mitt Romney's presidential aspirations should have died a slow and painful death yesterday. Unfortunately, Mitt Romney knows all too well that in politics, sanity and commonsense have long ago left the building. Romney knows that so long as conservatives cannot concentrate their votes on one candidate, he has more than a real shot at winning the nomination. This is because the establishment and many moderate Republicans are willing to overlook the foolishness of Contortion Conservatism and give him the nod.
So to my conservative friends I issue a warning. If you do not want to enter the battle of 2012 under the banner of Contortion Conservatism, then start doing your homework on candidate now.
Via: Memeorandum
Via: The National Review