We couldn’t be happier with the response to our post demonstrating that, as a US Senate candidate in 1994, Mitt Romney favored a federal mandate requiring individuals to purchase health insurance. The post has been widely picked up across the media and bandied about the Twitterverse. We even made it to TownHall.com – yay?
Anyway, we thought it worth calling it to your attention that a couple of sources are reporting having received a statement from Team Romney, in response to our story, as follows:
Governor Romney has made it very clear over the last many years, including during the 2008 presidential cycle, that he opposes a federally imposed individual mandate.
Huh, interesting. ‘Cause as we believe we’ve irrefutably demonstrated, he made it clear in 1994 that he supported a federally imposed individual mandate. He may not have loved it, but he said he’d vote for it. Sounds like support to me.
We can only conclude that Team Romney has done the English-speaking world a tremendous service. How often have you wondered how big a number “many” actually is? It’s so vague, so tough to pin down. But today, we know one thing for certain: “many” is less than 17.
man·y [men-ee] adjective, more, most, noun, pronoun –adjective 1. constituting or forming a large number; numerous: many people.
By this standard, he has not had “many” or a “large number” of reversals in his position on a federal mandate to purchase health insurance.
Let’s give him that.
It’s simple.
If it contradicts his narrative, it isn’t true.
If I have 16 sheep in my living room, I have many sheep there. If I ate 16 slices of pizza, I ate many slices of pizza.
I mean, there are fair attacks and questions on Romney, but this is weak stuff.
What’s the point of blogging if you can’t have a little fun now and then?
If I have 16 hairs on my head, then I have very few and am almost bald.
If I have 16 dollars in my checking account, then I have very little money in it.
The fact that Romney supported a federal mandate as recently as 1994, and his spokesbot says he’s opposed it for many years is just another example of our former governor’s willingness to throw away positions he once had for the sake of political expediency. This fits perfectly into the narrative that has been constructed around him by his opponents and his big “Mandates are great for Massachusetts, but I’ll never support them for the rest of the country” speech does nothing other than reinforce that narrative.