For Pete's Sake I'm Running for Office

A new study designed to address critiques of climate science by skeptics has confirmed that “global warming is real” and that the world’s average land temperature has risen by about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit since the mid-1950s. Eight years ago, a courageous former governor of one of our fifty states correctly summed up the dilemma of the impact of current industrial energy practices by supporting environmental controls on a coal-fired power plant, despite warnings that the plant might be closed,. He declared “I will not create jobs or hold jobs that kill people.”

Actually, that was Mitt Romney, back in 2003 — the same politician who now demands that we use more coal. The same guy avers that "Romneycare," which serves as the Massachusetts model for so-called "Obamacare" is different from the latter because, while 65% of the people in Massachusetts are strongly supportive of the Romney plan, it would be socialism if Obama's plan were to extend to the rest of the nation. Go figure! But these limited observations, and there are more (such as his switching positions on abortion, DADT, etc.), are understandable by consideration of the most honest statement that Romney has made in his six year run for the presidency during the latest Republican debate in Las Vegas. In reacting to Rick Perry's accusations that he had flip-flopped on immigration issues and previously hired illegal workers to work on the lawn of his estate, Romney shared the conversation that he apparently had with the owner of the lawn care company about this issue. In effect, he said that he told the owner that he could not use illegal immigrants to work on his lawn because "For Pete's sake, I'm running for office."

To summarize, we now know why Romney holds the views that he says he does. He's running for office. The views are not based on principle or core beliefs. I suppose that smart independents should take a great deal of reassurance from this knowledge, because the subliminal message to us is that Romney is really not who he currently claims to be. He is, in fact, a wolf in sheep's clothing, namely a liberal who is simply pretending to be a conservative so that he can obtain the right to run for the presidency. The analogy to Reagan's site selection for starting his presidential campaign in a red neck hot bed of racial animosity is a perfect fit. Without saying more, Reagan made it clear as to what his values were and he carried the deep South in nearly landslide fashion. Romney is doing the same thing. He is telling us moderates that while he was once for us, he must now be against us, so that he can be for us again.