There’s no legislation with regards to abortion that I’m familiar with that would become part of my agenda.

Governor Romney would of course support legislation aimed at providing greater protections for life.

So Mitt Romney went from "no legislation ... that would become part of my agenda" to "would of course support legislation" in the span of just two hours. Wow. At least when he was governor it took him two full years to flip-flop on his pro-choice pledge.

It really is saying something when you can look at the old Romney and say he was a model of consistency, right? As Bill Clinton said yesterday about this new Romney:



"I had a different reaction to that first debate than a lot of people did," Clinton told nearly 2,000 supporters at a campaign rally for Obama and other Democrats. "I thought, 'Wow, here's old moderate Mitt. Where ya been, boy?'" Clinton compared Romney's performance in Denver to a sales job at the Boston private equity firm where the Republican presidential nominee made his personal fortune. "It was like one of these Bain Capital deals, you know, where he's the closer," Clinton said. "So he shows up, doesn't really know much about the deal and says, 'Tell me what I'm supposed to say to close.' The problem with this deal is the deal was made by severe conservative Mitt," alluding to Romney's description of himself in February as having been a "severely conservative" governor in Massachusetts.

I'd be lying if I said I knew what Mitt Romney's true beliefs were. Hell, I don't even really know if he actually has any true beliefs other than the belief that he's justified in doing whatever it takes to get what he wants.

But what I do know is that it only took his campaign two hours to take back what he said. I do know that earlier in the campaign Mitt Romney wrote an op-ed in the National Review pledging to do "everything in my power" to curtail abortion rights, including supporting several pieces of legislation that he specifically identified. And I do know that when it came to picking a vice presidential candidate, he picked Paul Ryan, one of the most conservative Republicans in congress on issues of choice and reproductive freedom.

We may not know what Mitt Romney really believes, but we do know what he's said and done as a candidate and a politician. And we do know that he is that he is a captive of the conservative Republican base. They might cut him a little slack over the next month, but ultimately they're the boss—not the other way around. And the position he'd take as president would be the position that they demand.