Whipping up the Base

Who says the two parties are polarized? After writing the script for Obamacare when he was governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney is now taking credit for the auto industry bailout. This surprised me, as a couple of days ago a friend of mine – a thoughtful and entrepreneurial businessman – said, “Mitt will have a lot of explaining to do about his position on the bailout.”

Here’s his latest explanation: "I pushed the idea of a managed bankruptcy, and finally when that was done, and help was given, the companies got back on their feet. . . . So, I'll take a lot of credit for the fact that this industry has come back."

If the outcome had been different, Plan B was ready: "If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday,” he wrote in 2008, “you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye.”

Guess which of those statements he made to workers at an Ohio auto-parts manufacturing plant.

No wonder his former Republican opponents are burying their endorsements at the end of speeches and the bottom of emails.

Near the conclusion of his self-important exit announcement, Newt Gingrich said, “I’m asked sometimes, is Mitt Romney conservative enough? Compared to Barack Obama? This is a choice between Mitt Romney and the most radical, leftist president in history.”

And on Monday, Rick Santorum’s website posted his endorsement email without fanfare, in the middle of the night, and in the fourth-to-last paragraph.