Romney and electability

The conventional wisdom that Mitt Romney is the most electable of the Republican presidential candidates makes absolutely no sense to me. I am not even sure that he is relatively more electable than Rick Perry - as is widely accepted - or even Michele Bachmann - as is almost universally accepted.

The single biggest barrier to electability in my view is inauthenticity, inconsistency and self-contradiction. I am not sure that in the history of the world, there has been a candidate for any office with more examples of this unelectable behaviour than Mitt Romney.

Many would argue that John Kerry lost the 2004 election thanks to the playing and replaying of his infamous quote "I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it."

Ad makers could have a field day with the many similar or worse examples of Mitt Romney quotes. Imagine ads playing footage of Romney saying the following things side-by-side:

Romney then	Romney now
"I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country... Many, many years ago I had a dear close family relative - that was very close to me - who passed away from an illegal abortion. It is since that time that my mother and our family have been committed to the belief." - 1994 "I will preserve and protect a woman's right to choose." - 2002	"I am pro-life; that's the truth." - 2007
"Look, I was an independent during the time of Reagan/Bush. I'm not trying to return to Reagan/Bush." - 1994	"I take my inspiration from Ronald Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush." - 2008

Those are just two of my favourites. There are others on gay rights, individually-mandated health care, affirmative action, states rights, gun rights, etc, etc.

The idea that this guy has a snowball's chance in hell in a general election is the greatest political joke ever told.