It was inevitable. Mitt Romney is going to sell-out conservatives in his party in order to win the general. And if he wins, he'll sell them out again in order to be re-elected.*

Zeke Miller and McKay Coppins reporting for Buzzfeed have found the first issue on which Romney is trying to put some distance between himself and the conservative wing of his party.

Allahpundit, one of the most perceptive conservative bloggers, also detects the hint of conflict between the GOP candidate and the GOP Congress.

Mitt Romney told reporters today that he supports efforts to extend low interest rates for college loans — appearing to align himself with a Democrat-sponsored bill and against Congressional Republicans.

"I fully support the effort to extend the low interest rate on student loans,” Romney said at a joint news conference with Florida Senator Marco Rubio. “There was some concern that that would expire halfway through the year, and I support extending the temporary relief on interest rates for students as a result of student loans, obviously, in part because of the extraordinarily poor conditions in the job market.”

It's a small issue, but it is like the wind shifting just before the storm comes.

Romney's top advisor already described how in the general election you can just shake the "Etch-a-Sketch" and start over.

Here are some issues to watch for Romney betrayal on: spending cuts (particularly entitlement spending), his opposition to the "contraception mandate" on religious employers, his promise to de-fund Planned Parenthood, his determination to label China a currency-manipulator, his stark opposition to amnesty for illegal immigrants.

There will be many others as well.

via BuzzFeedBen

*(Romney's not alone in this. Talk to a real left-winger about Obama's record on government-secrecy, the Patriot Act, the wars, and Guantanamo Bay. They've been sold-out too.)