Ob'Romneycare

Mitt Romney's presidential aspirations hinge entirely on Republican voters forgetting, or ignoring, the type of governor he was in Massachusetts.

By way of explaining his pro-choice position, Romney once brought an audience nearly to tears with the story of a family member who died as a result of a "back-alley" abortion.

While governor, Romney was for gay marriage -- this was of course before he ran for president and discovered that he was actually against it.

What kills me is that serious establishment conservatives -- not entertainers like Limbaugh and Hannity, but the likes of Jim Talent and others -- actually seem to believe that Mitt Romney is the clear conservative choice in 2012.

As has been astutely noted by savvy politicos, the recently enacted health care bill bears a striking resemblance to Romney's health care package instituted in Massachusetts during his tenure as governor -- the central feature is an individual mandate to purchase health insurance (to eliminate the "free rider" problem), as well as subsidies to purchase insurance for lower wage earners.

To be fair, Romney isn't the only conservative double-taking on the mandate issue -- the Heritage Foundation proffered the individual mandate as a type of free-market alternative to HillaryCare in 1994.

But Romney is the only one running for president.

What is particularly delicious is this YouTube montage of Romney expressing his support for a mandate, and then painfully trying to distinguish his Massachusetts plan from Obamacare.

Mitt Romney is the Republican Party's version of John Kerry -- a rudderless, unprincipled demagogue who will say anything to get people to vote for him.