It's hard to imagine a single Republican presidential candidate who carries a heavier burden than the one born by Mitt Romney following the passage of the Affordable Care Act. As governor of Massachusetts, Romney ushered through a healthcare bill that looks awfully similar to the Affordable Healthcare Act.
The anchor will weigh down Romney twice. First, in the primary, he will be open to the exact same sorts of attacks Republicans are levying by wrote on President Obama. But things would only get worse for Romney if he were to win the Republican nomination. With his own healthcare reform in Massachusetts, Romney will be incapable of drawing contrast with President Obama on healthcare. The standard attacks Republicans are levying on Obama, particularly about the individual mandate, cannot be persuasive when they come from someone who did the same thing when he was an executive.
That's why there is some real brilliance in David Axelrod's recent comments in praise of Romney.
He pointedly praised one of the leading contenders, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, in a way that spotlighted Romney's vulnerability within the GOP for signing a state health care law that parallels the new federal law in some ways.There's an old saying in politics: when your opponent is drowning, through him an anchor. That's exactly what Axelrod is doing here. By drawing attention to not only the similarity between Romneycare and the Affordable Care Act, but that Romney's legislation came first and was instructive to the Obama administration, Axelrode is giving Romney quite an anchor.
Romney "did some interesting things there on health care, you know," Axelrod said. "We got some good ideas from him."
Steven Benen points out that the healthcare legislation was effectively Romney's only accomplishment in his one term as governor of Massachusetts. Benen writes:
The irony for Romney is that he's flip-flopped on practically every issue I can think of, but the one position he's inclined to stick to is the one the GOP base finds wholly unacceptable.Romney is in a real bind here. He can't persuasively disavow the one policy he is best known for, without furthering the other thing he's best none for: his reputation as a flip-flopper.
Unfortunately, I think Benen is wrong. Romney may be disinclined to flip on his healthcare legislation, but the weight of this anchor is going to be too great for him not to flip before all is said and done. I expect that by the third GOP presidential primary debate at latest, Mitt Romney will have disavowed his healthcare legislation and the individual mandate in order to get himself in line with the Republican base and the rest of the Republican Party. I don't see a path for the nomination for him if he is unwilling or unable to level the same attacks on the President as the rest of the field, especially on the huge issue of healthcare. In the mean time, it will be a joy to watch Romney struggle to bear the weight his healthcare anchor.