The Romney pivot is underway

[ProSense]

The Romney pivot is underway

By Greg Sargent

Today, during an exchange with reporters, Mitt Romney had some nice things to say about Paris. That’s commanding a lot of attention already on Twitter and elsewhere.

But this quote from Romney, in which he offered his support for the push to extend low interest rates on student loans — something Obama has been championing — is far more important:

I fully support the effort to extend the low interest rate on student loans. There was some concern that would expire halfway through the year. I support extending the temporarily relief on interest rates...in part because of the extraordinarily poor conditions in the job market.

And so the pivot is underway. At his press availability today, Romney had not even been asked about the student loan push — yet he deliberately went out of his way to clarify his support for the extension, anyway.

This would seem to put Romney at odds with Congressional Republicans. Obama has launched an all-out push to get Congress to extend a provision of a 2007 law that is set to expire on July 1st — doubling the interest rate for nearly eight million students each year. Congressional Republicans are expected to oppose it along party lines, arguing that the extension represents a fiscally irresponsible effort to buy the youth vote. But now Romney appears to have come out for it.

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UPDATE: Obama campaign spokesperson Lis Smith responds:

Mitt Romney continues to make promises that he can’t keep. While he previously endorsed the Ryan budget, which would make deep cuts to Pell Grants and allow student loan rates to double, and last week said that he would gut the Department of Education to pay for his tax plan, today we heard yet another—and contradictory — position from Romney on student loans. As the list of promises Mitt Romney has made to the American people gets longer — from giving $5 trillion in tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans to claiming that he would balance the budget — the numbers just don’t add up.

The real question is whether Mitt Romney is being honest about his agenda and if so, whether he will come clean about the necessarily painful cuts he would have to make to meet all of his promises.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/the-romney-pivot-is-underway/2012/04/23/gIQAsQJRcT_blog.html

[spanone]

1. i bet 'his' party will have none of it.

he's already shaking the etch-a-sketch

[elleng]

2. Right,

and Right.

[LAGC]

3. It's going to be real interesting to see who he picks for V-P.

McCain gambled and picked Palin, which shored up his conservative base but sent independents fleeing.

Romney may try to pick someone more centrist, but that could piss off the conservatives and keep them home in November.

The GOP is in a pickle, no doubt about it.

[KurtNYC]

4. Is it a pivot or an attempt at re-branding?

Romney is going to try to make up ground on all the issues he is beaten on. They poll and find out what people want to hear then they say it, preferably in the same words that the real people used.

Romney is basically a Phillip Morris type brand right now, high negs, no friends, embarrassing history -- but he wants to be Altria just in time for the election.

[gratuitous]

5. "Is Romney being honest about his agenda?"

Uh, if you find any evidence of it, please let us know, and we can answer that question, Ms. Smith. As it is, the Romney agenda appears to change slightly more often than he changes his . . . well, I was going to say underwear, but I think I'll say, more often than he changes his tie.

[C_U_L8R]

6. Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?