Running in Circles

Can Romney lead this country in any direction except in circles?  I had an epiphany this morning as it finally dawned on me what Romney’s pattern of campaign behavior resembles.  I was walking through a near-by neighborhood when I saw a young dog chasing its tail.  I stood and watched it for a moment and felt an eerie familiarity percolate in my brain.  I started laughing when I realized that it was exactly how Romney is running his campaign.  He is struggling mightily and continuously to avoid running in circles. A definition of full circle is to return to an earlier or first position or situation after leaving it.  Today’s struggle is the observation that former governor, who set up a healthcare system in Massachusetts — the best of its kind in the country — is now trying to pretend he doesn’t remember how it works.  As reported today in the New York Times, “On Monday, his campaign said Romney believed the identical requirement in President Obama’s health care law was a penalty, paid through the tax system. Two days later, Romney rushed to the cameras to contradict the campaign and insist the mandate was a tax.”   

There are two aspects of my morning observation that are pertinent to this discussion; one humorous, the other troublesome.  The humorous aspect we all get.  Who cannot be amused at the spectacle of a grown man dodging and weaving his way around issues and positions struggling mightily to keep from returning (full circle) to places where he has been in the past?  The other, more ominous, is that the man will do anything to appease the right wing of his party even if, in so doing, he makes a fool of himself publicly for reversing and going in the opposite direction of where his initial impulses and common sense reactions might take him.   I think the American public wants more from a leader than someone who will disagree with his opponent and his former self just to garner votes.  How about demonstrating some character and integrity instead?

Just saying . . .