Pander Bear

Romney sounded almost reasonable tonight. The problem is that he contradicted virtually everything he's been campaigning on for at least the past 18 months. This election might boil to down to an IQ and memory test for voters. Are we smart enough and alert enough as a country to peel away the stuff he said tonight from all the stuff he's been preaching CONTINUOUSLY up until tonight? Are we smart enough to recognize a pack of lies? Or, will Romney surprise all of us and unequivocally and rather explicitly disavow every major policy position that has been promoting? Will actually he say, "Yeah, I meant everything I said in the Republican primary debates and on the stump, BUT I've changed my mind -- a 180-degree reversal -- on all those issues." Unless those are the next words out of his mouth, he's simply playing us for stupid and he's lying. That said, I wonder why Obama wasn't a little more forceful and explicit in challenging some of this nonsense. Mr. Romney can try pivoting to center all he wants, but if his opponents are smart they will let his own words prove the utter dishonesty of the pivot. Either he totally conned the Republican party to win the nomination or he's totally conning us now or both. Why is he so afraid of settling on an idea and an ideal, telling us clearly and explicitly how that will translate into actual policy prescriptives and then, most importantly, sticking to it? He's clearly a smart guy. Does he not think that we're smart enough to evaluate his policies on their merits and then make a fair and well-reasoned decision? Why does he continue to rely on obfuscation and deceit? To quote the late Paul Tsongas, Mitt is a "pander bear."