Not gonna happen. Thursday, the NY Times‘ Nicholas Kristof wrote this:

This is a man who registered as a Republican only in preparation for his 1994 Senate campaign against Edward Kennedy; previously, Romney had registered as an independent. As recently as 2002, in his successful run for governor of Massachusetts, he described himself this way: “People recognize that I am not a partisan Republican, that I’m someone who is moderate, and that my views are progressive.”

That was accurate, and Romney became an excellent, moderate and pragmatic governor of Massachusetts. But then, in 2005, he apparently began to fancy himself as Republican presidential timber and started veering to the right in what we can all pray was a cynical, unprincipled pander.

Just to remind everyone what some of that “cynical, unprincipled pander” entailed:

•eliminated funding for a suicide teen hotline that was targeted at gay children
•cut assistance for the mentally disabled
•cut funding for HIV treatment and prevention
•cut assistance for the homeless
•cut emergency aid for the elderly
•cut support for immunization
•cut funding for residential special education
•cut funding for state universities
•cut funding for the preservation and upkeep of state parks and beaches
•cut funding for economic grants to municipalities (jobs!)
•cut funding for the Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation
•cut funding for domestic violence prevention programs
•cut funding for sexual assault prevention programs, including the Sex Abuse Intervention network, and support for local police programs

And he did this, not to solve budget problems, but so he could claim he cut taxes.

When someone is this cynical, why do you believe he would do the right thing when given the chance? He has an established track record of cruelty in service of his own political prerogative. He’s not going to change. To think otherwise is a sucker’s play.

Besides, the moderate Republican is the leader of the Democratic party.