After stinging losses in Iowa and New Hampshire, Mitt Romney stormed into Michigan last week with well-documented desperation. He told his supporters:
Hit the phones today make all the promises you have to, and...make sure that we get the funds that we need to keep on propelling this campaign forward with power and energy.
CNN reported that he said this "jokingly." I doubt that its literal message-- say whatever it takes, even bald lies--was lost on his audience of callers.
Romney's win yesterday in Michigan vindicated this strategy of dishonesty and unvarnished pandering. He campaigned as if he were running for president of Michigan, not president of the United States of America.
He is continuing to live up to the claims made in December's searing "anti-endorsement" from the Concord Monitor:
If you followed only his tenure as governor of Massachusetts, you might imagine Romney as a pragmatic moderate with liberal positions on numerous social issues and an ability to work well with Democrats. If you followed only his campaign for president, you'd swear he was a red-meat conservative, pandering to the religious right, whatever the cost. Pay attention to both, and you're left to wonder if there's anything at all at his core.
Part of campaigning is to unveil plans and initiaitves, and not all of them may pan out. However, Romney takes these pledges on the stump to the extreme. Mitt Romney may be an excellent business consultant and an friendly guy, but as a politician he is all ambition and no soul. He won't hesitate an instant to make all the empty promises in the world to win.