Onion: Mitt Romney Haunted By Past Of Trying To Help Uninsured Sick People

[Larry]

BELMONT, MA—Though Mitt Romney is considered to be a frontrunner for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, the national spotlight has forced him to repeatedly confront a major skeleton in his political closet: that as governor of Massachusetts he once tried to help poor, uninsured sick people.

Romney, who signed the state's 2006 health care reform act, has said he "deeply regrets" giving people in poor physical and mental health the opportunity to seek medical attention, admitting that helping very sick people get better remains a dark cloud hovering over his political career, and his biggest obstacle to becoming president of the United States of America.

More at link.

[mjah]

I saw this the other day and had a hearty chuckle.

If Romney does an about-face on health care, I'm wondering how it will end up NOT looking just the tiniest little bit like the Onion article. "Sorry I helped people who needed it. Sorry I openly advocated it, stumped for it, and signed it. It was so similar to the much larger national thing that ended up emulating its success, years later, and which I never thought would actually happen and realistically couldn't possibly have even anticipated at the time. I'm so sorry for preemptively copying a thing you hate which didn't exist until years later. My mistake."

Even if it's couched as "Well, it was only at the state level at the time. By the way, I'd like to run the country now." ...I suspect the party lifers will still pull the lever for him, but a Trump or some other guy will be getting a lot of indie votes that otherwise would have gone ®.

And Obama will stand up there at the debates and say, "Mitt's Massachusetts was absolutely our model for the Affordable Care Act. I'm happy to report that this year, you have the choice between TWO proud advocates of universal health care."

Having typed this... there's no way Romney gets the GOP nod, right? I mean, honestly.