One of the worst labels you can slap on a politician is the label of flip-flopper. Once branded a waffler, it’s hard to ever repair your reputation. Most insiders know this, hence the pressure to sign multiple pledges and questionnaires to get people pinned down on positions as soon as possible.
Mitt Romney is getting hit hard with the flip-flopper stick, much the same way John Kerry was hit with it in 2004. He’s being attacked for his past positions when he was Governor of Massachusetts, particularly with their health care reform efforts. And, in what is pretty clear evidence of who the Obama campaign team most fears next year, the DNC has taken out a major ad buy in six targeted swings states – including Virginia – painting Mitt as a flip-flopper. They’ve even got a cute website set up at www.mittvmitt.com (if you watch the video, you can see a great shot of my hair at 2:08, along with half of Bill Bolling’s face.) And as it becomes clearer that Romney will be the Republican nominee, the comparisons to John Kerry in 2004 are going to come fast and furious.
I think they’re bogus.
I’ve never been a fan of the whole flip-flopper line of argument. Given the volume of information and the ever evolving political landscape out there, I think it’s unfair to attack an elected official for changing his mind. In fact, I’m in favor of encouraging it. We don’t need automatons in office, especially not the chief magistrate of the Republic. We need a president who can recognize that what may work for one area may not work everywhere, and who is willing to change his mind as new facts emerge. That’s a good thing – if anything, we need elected officials willing to have the courage to admit when they’ve been wrong or made a mistake.
The flip-flop line also tends to ignore the fact that not every political office is the same. While an argument can be made that the Senate is a national body, rather than simply states being represented as states, you can’t argue that a Governorship is somehow national. State Governors are focused on what’s best for their state, which is how it should be. Members of Congress and Senators have a wider responsibility given their national authority, and they should be held to a higher standard when it comes to changing their minds.
And it’s important to keep in mind that not every “flip-flop” is the kind that deserves derision. John Kerry’s “I actually voted for it before I voted against it” is the kind of flip-flop that deserves mockery – it was clearly politically driven and it was a typical Washington move to provide political cover on controversial votes. We’ve all seen politicians vote the expedient way when it doesn’t matter and vote the other way when it does. Those kinds of flip-flops are the most damaging, often because there’s no way to make the argument that you had new facts or a changed opinion based on further contemplation.
Romney’s primary flip-flops – at least, the ones that he’s most often hit with – are based on his stances and record as Governor of Massachusetts. Does anyone really expect that the former governor of one of the most liberal states in the Union govern like a southern-style conservative? I don’t. What I do expect is that, as Governor, he would represent the people of his Commonwealth, and he did. He did what the voters in Massachusetts wanted. That was his job. The fact that some of the things he did in Massachusetts I strongly disagree with on the national level doesn’t matter – he’s not running to bring Massachusetts style politics to the national level. Where his stances differ from his record, it’s clear that the differences are based on his desire to represent a larger constituency – and it’s that larger constituency that drives the changed opinions. What works in Massachusetts probably won’t work nationally, and Romney is smart enough to recognize that. So he’s running a national campaign, based on national issues. Some cynical folks might call that pandering. I call it knowing your audience and recognizing that there’s a big difference between being a Governor and being President.
That’s what we should expect from a candidate for President. These flip-flopper arguments just don’t hold water.
