Mitt Romney

politics.salon.com — Gee willikers, former GOP presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney denounced his latest rival, disgraced former House speaker Newt Gingrich, in his harshest language yet, calling him “zany” in an interview with the New York Times. Beltway folks think that shows Mitt’s fear and ferocity, I think it shows him, again, as an animatron politician devoid of passion who’s stuck in the 1950s. Zany? Gidget was zany. Gingrich is a dangerous huckster, who will apparently say anything to get elected. Romney does seem desperate, whether his goofy language captures it or not.

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washingtonpost.com — In a sense, the fuss over a 2002 video in which Mitt Romney describes his views as progressive is absurd. After all, from 2003 to 2007 Romney was governor of Massachusetts. His record as governor is public. That record is either progressive or not, depending on your definition of the term. Romney’s comments don’t add any new information into the mix. And yet, this isn’t about his record, is it? In 2002, Romney was doing exactly what he’s doing now: assuring a skeptical audience that he was, in some essential way, one of them. But he wasn’t. At least, that’s what he says now that he’s trying to convince another skeptical audience with very different views that he’s actually one of them. And ultimately, it’s this question that separates the policy flip-flops of Romney and Gingrich.

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robertreich.org — Two important reforms are stopping the revolving door between Washington and the nation’s financial giants, and preventing financiers from flipping companies (making short-term profits by borrowing big sums to buy them, then squeezing payrolls and firing employees, and reselling the stripped-down companies at a profit — unless the debt-laden firms fall into bankruptcy first). Remarkably, the frontrunners for the Republican nomination for president seem to agree. At least, that’s the clear implication from what they’ve said today.

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