It’s hard to exaggerate what an unholy mess Mitt Romney has made for himself on the issue of Latino immigration. He really has two big problems. First, he’s said what he’s said, and his positions on immigration, amnesty, and deportations are all in the public record. To say those positions are a major turnoff to the Latino community would be a major understatement. His second problem is the fundamental dishonesty of what he’s trying to do in attacking Obama’s record. He has surrogates out there serving as directors of outreach to the Latino community who are blaming the president for not passing an immigration reform bill and for deporting too many people. Those would be fair criticisms if it wasn’t the near-unaimous opposition from the Republicans that prevented Obama from signing a bill, and if Romney didn’t plan to deport far more people with far less discretion than Obama.
One outreach director got so flummoxed over these contradictions that she blurted out the following nonsense:
“I think as a candidate, to my understanding, that he’s still deciding what his position on immigration is,” she said. “So I can’t talk about what his proposal’s going to be, because I don’t know what Romney exactly — he’s talked about different issues. And what we saw in the Republican primary is that there’s a very diverse opinion on how to deal with immigration. So I can’t talk about something that I don’t know what his position is.”
This is similar to the difficulty the Obama administration is having explaining his “evolving” views on gay marriage. But, with Obama, his ambivalence is an isolated case. Romney can’t afford to continually reinforce his reputation as a flip-flopper who always puts his finger in the wind before taking a position on an issue. He came out too strongly against any kind of humane immigration policy to pivot now without incurring a tremendous cost. No one will believe that his new, softer positions are anything other than pure cynicism.
This is a guy who just tried to take credit for saving the auto industry he sought to destroy. He’s willing to say anything , no matter how preposterous. But that’s not a good thing.