Yesterday, Mitt Romney took the podium in an abortion factory and explained why health care mandates are awesome when he demands them and not-so-great when President Obama demands them. You can watch the whole speech on C-Span’s site. He tosses out some solid Republican soundbites, like when he says the Obama Administration “fundamentally doesn’t believe in the American Experiment,” but the soundbites that are getting thrown back at him, like the fact that his health plan supports abortion while President Obama’s doesn’t, are a hell of a lot more compelling.
I suppose it’s technically smart for Romney to try to turn this into a state’s-rights issue. That’s going to be a big deal in the 2012 election; conservatives are going to try to make it into Civil War 2.0 out there. And if Romney gave the impression that he believed what he’s saying, he might have had a shot at making that argument. But this stodgy speech, with Powerpoint slides, even, isn’t at all the passionate defense that he needed. His pointed refusal to apologize for his Massachusetts health care plan should look brave and principled; instead it looks like a lawyerly calculation. And this is the guy Mark Halperin gives good odds on winning the Republican nomination? Huh.
Everytime a Republican starts yammering about ‘ states rights ‘ I respond, “Wait, aren’t you the party of Lincoln?”