A New Record in Flip Flopping?

Posted by Bob Lord

Back in March, I speculated whether Romney would set a new standard in flip flopping by doing what I referred to as a "flip-flop-flip," where a candidate flips on his first position, then flips back to it. Here's the post:

http://www.blogforarizona.com/blog/2012/03/has-this-ever-happened-before.html

It was heartening to hear the term flip-flop-flip used on MSNBC a short time after that post. 

Well, turns out I underestimated my buddy Mitt. As we all know, he flip-flopped on his own health care plan in order to get past the Republican primaries. We've heard repeatedly how he would "repeal Obamacare on Day 1." Then, miraculously, over the weekend, ole Mitt let us know that the Obamacare provisions for children up to age 26 and protection of folks with pre-existing conditions, well, he'd keep those after all. OK, there's the flip-flop-flip I speculated about. But wait, there's more. After just a few hours, Mitt's campaign announced that he would repeal Obamacare after all, and let the market worry about the folks with pre-existing conditions (which they assured us the market would do, despite what would seem to be overwhelming historical data to the contrary. That completed the flip-flop-flip-flop.

But I don't think he's done yet. We have almost two months left in this election cycle. I'm going out on a limb here, but I think Mitt will swing back to the left on Obamacare before election day, thereby completing the flip-flop-flip-flop-flip, a feat never accomplished before by a politician. 

Anybody disagree?

UPDATE: For a more eloquent discussion of this topic, see Gene Robinson's piece here:  http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/romneys_health_care_dither_20120911/