Mitt Romney, chameleon candidate

I’m watching the first Presidential Debate, and Mitt Romney is infuriating. When he was governor here in Massachusetts, he did at least this much:

  • Romneycare
  • Retained the assault weapons ban when it expired nationally
  • Signed the same-sex marriage law
  • Supported a woman’s right to having an abortion
  • And a personal favorite, forced Billy Boy Bulger into retirement

Of course Romney had to compromise as governor of Massachusetts! He was a Republican governor in a Democratic state. As President he wouldn’t have to compromise so much. The one, and only, hopeful outcome of a Mitt Romney Presidency is that he would be, as he was here in Massachusetts, willing to do the right thing, rather than adhere to party ideology. But I don’t trust him to do that again. He just said moments ago, “Massachusetts schools are #1 in the nation.” Why is that? It’s because we aren’t just Democrats, but realists. Romney’s problem is that at the national level he’s stuck with the platform of the Republican National Committee, which is determined to take us backwards in every way.

Cranking out the years

With my ‘interesting’ eyes, I can relate to Friday’s Crankshaft.

Crankshaft is one of my favorite comic strips, but when there are flashbacks — tinted brown and framed as if in an old photo album — I have to ignore the “timeline disconnect” in the continuity. Ed Crankshaft is supposed to be a WWII vet who had played ball for the Toledo Mud Hens. For that to be possible he would be somewhere between 85 and 90 years old — too old to make it up the stairs to his apartment over the garage, let alone drive a school bus. His daughter and son-in-law witnessed the Kent State killings of students by the National Guard in 1970, so they have to be at least 60 or 62, and yet the family is portrayed as if Pam and Jeff are 50-55.