these guys are hilarious. this pretty much undercuts their ENTIRE strategy.

This is not the first nor last time we'll see the GOP messaging clash with the reality that is their nominee.

Good luck with those semantic contortions, Romney campaign.

Well, it's really Obomney-care, so saying that it is a tax could come back and bite him.

Bringing an entirely new meaning to the term "quantum spin"...

GAT_00: I think the Romney campaign might actually be positioning themselves to start talking about how he did first in Massachusetts what Obama did everywhere, since the polls suddenly showed a jump in support for Obamacare.

He'd lose more GOP people than he'd conceivably be able to poach from Obama on that topic.

Diogenes: GAT_00: I think the Romney campaign might actually be positioning themselves to start talking about how he did first in Massachusetts what Obama did everywhere, since the polls suddenly showed a jump in support for Obamacare.

He'd lose more GOP people than he'd conceivably be able to poach from Obama on that topic.

Rmoney sees a chance to pull in some independents on one issue while continuing to pander to the GOP base on their most pressing concern by remaining white.

Here's the thing with an advisor saying stuff like this - the campaign would just cut the advisor loose.

lol - this is the SAME advisor who went on national TV and said that they'd reset after the primaries, just like an "etch-a-sketch."

man, this guy is awesome!

Aarontology: See what happens when you ride a wave of anti-mandate for a couple of years then nominate the guy who was the first to implement it?

Why do you think Obama did a dance of joy after Romney won the nom? Thats one HUGE issue that has been completely nullified in this election.

FlashHarry: lol - this is the SAME advisor who went on national TV and said that they'd reset after the primaries, just like an "etch-a-sketch."

man, this guy is awesome!

And he's supposed to be Romney's muscle - his Rahm.

jbc:

Rmoney sees a chance to pull in some independents on one issue while continuing to pander to the GOP base on their most pressing concern by remaining white.

A lot of this.

FlashHarry: lol - this is the SAME advisor who went on national TV and said that they'd reset after the primaries, just like an "etch-a-sketch."

They didn't fire him? Wow.

GAT_00: I think the Romney campaign might actually be positioning themselves to start talking about how he did first in Massachusetts what Obama did everywhere, since the polls suddenly showed a jump in support for Obamacare.

Or rather, trying to position themselves defensively because mandates were on the table by the GOP for a long while. While folks really want to try to run with this as an issue, the closer it gets down to actual debates, I think that the strategists are realizing that if they try to run with this line of attack, they'll be exposed with REAMS of material across years and years of support for the very thing that they are complaining about bitterly.

That's what happens when you run your mouth for years at a time. It accumulates records. While Romney as a candidate in the Primaries has been pretty much left to run his mouth out both sides, when it comes down to facing Obama AFTER the Primary and his nomination, it's going to be a different game. And while Romney is talking a good game about how he's not going to talk to the Lamestream Media and a ton of other grandstanding efforts, he's going to have to shift gears and become a REAL national candidate.

He's campaigned for the job for a long while. He's never gotten this close to the Big Show before. He's just now beginning to realize, that five years of begging for his shot, he's actually got to deliver something, and he's been campaigning essentially without a real opponent for a long time. Yes, the Primaries got a little ugly, but in the end, it was still campaigning WITH folks from your own party. He is very much not used to actually running against a live opponent who actually responds to him, beyond the sort of blind contempt that major league ball players have for AA guys who want their shot, and talk smack about how well they'd do if they got their chance.

You'd think that Romney would be better at running a campaign--he's had a lot of practice, but not on the national level, not against a real live opponent who actually doesn't have to preserve his dignity. Newt. Santorum. Bachmann. All the rest, they still have to pretend that they're all in it together, but Obama can unleash Hell on Romney simply by quoting him. Over. And over. And over. And over again. Romney is beginning to realize that, and you'd think after five years, he'd develop some skills for message discipline, but to be fair, I think he got so deep into professional campaign mode, that he and his team are just now coming to the realization that they have to run against a President who managed to bag Bin Ladin, who ended conflicts, who has a Peace Prize, and who just defended his health care plan, which was BASED on the model that the GOP had been trying for years to implement--sans tort reform which won't fly no matter who proposes it.

Romney has got to be wondering if 5 years of campaigning for the chance to face Obama was worth it...

It's ok guys. Tomorrow they'll shake the mitt a sketch and claim the non-tax was actually a tax in secret. And that they weren't for it before they passed it in Massachusetts. I think he wrote an op ed about not supporting it.

This isn't one hand not talking to the other. It's Romney trying to avoid yet another easily provable contradiction while having his attack PACs do the dirty work for him. Romney says the mandate isn't a tax, which is also what he said back when it was part of RomneyCare... and yet Rove's new Super PAC ads FOR ROMNEY say that it IS a tax. The Super PACs can run a completely different campaign for the same damn candidates.

/obvious tag

Man I can't wait to not vote this year.

"It's a floor wax!" "It's a dessert topping!"

/Link

Question. If the mandate is a tax then doesn't it come under the control of the House, liable to vote by simple majority as the House controls the purse strings?

Fluorescent Testicle: I've said it before and I'll say it again: RomneyBot was built by Aperture and his advisor is Wheatley.

Possible responses to your comment:
1. Mr. Fehrnstrom has really spaced. Spaced. Gotta go to space.
2. This was a triumph. I'm making a note here, huge success. It's hard to overstate my satisfaction.
3. The cake is a lie.