Romney cuddles up to Bush

I've never liked Mitt Romney. When he first ran for governor of Massachusetts he struck me as a disingenuous opportunist in the way he portrayed his residency. I know that's nothing new when a New England Brahmin like George HW Bush kept a P.O. box in Texas so he could vote there, and a Cubs fan by birth like Hillary Clinton moved to New York because she liked her chances in the Senate race.

If that were the only thing it would be no big deal, but ever since he decided to run for president (bored with his day job, I guess) he has begun singing from the Bush 43 hymnal like a choirboy eager to be chosen for a solo. Stem cell research? Against that evil witchery now; I HAD to pretend I was for it because, well, you know, I was in enemy territory up there in Massachusetts. Abortion rights? Against that one too, now that I'm looking for conservative votes.

Now Romney is praising the war in Iraq, just as other Republicans have begun to show some guts and call it what it is. "The enemy is emboldened by anything other than the strength of America," he said yesterday. I don't know that this is a flip flop, but it sure sounds like a big wet smooch on Bush's behind.

I can't imagine that this guy truly has presidential ambitions; surely he realizes that his international experience is limited to running the Olympics and that the Massachusetts governorship has never been much of a launching off point for national politics. More likely, he's angling for a cabinet post.

You have to wonder if he realizes that Bush is a lame duc when he says stuff like this: "And it's an extraordinary obligation and burden that the president faces. Every American life -- every life -- is precious, and it's an extraordinary burden, which the president carries very well and with dignity." Blech.