Relieved Republicans yesterday lauded Mitt Romney's sudden move to override one of his top strategists and decry Obamacare as a tax, even as some — fearing renewed charges of flip-flopping — called for a major campaign shake-up.
"Clearly, Romney's made up his mind now, and that's a good thing. It is a tax, and it's the clearest way for Republicans to differ-- entiate themselves in this race," said Michael Dennehy, a New Hampshire-based Republican consultant. "But I don't know why it took him so long."
Many conservatives, though sharply critical of Romney's campaign, were willing to move on yesterday for the sake of beating President Obama.
"We shouldn't lose sight of the forest for the trees. The trees are the tactical and rhetorical missteps of the Romney campaign, and the problems posed by Romney's Massachusetts record," said conservative William Kristol.
"The forest, which matters much, much more, is that Obamacare is unpopular, and Romney opposed it and will repeal and replace it."
Eric Fehrnstrom, one of Romney's closest advisers, set off a firestorm among conservatives this week when he insisted that the rule forcing Americans to get health insurance or face a fee is a penalty.
Romney set the record straight yesterday.
"The Supreme Court has spoken, and while I agreed with the dissent ... the majority of the court said it's a tax, and there it is, a tax. They have spoken, there's no way around that," the presumptive GOP presidential nominee told CBS yesterday as he marked Independence Day in Wolfeboro.
"And the American people know that President Obama has broken the pledge he made. He said he wouldn't raise taxes on middle-income Americans," Romney said.
Romney's campaign has wrestled with the high-court ruling upholding Obama's Affordable Care Act as a national tax, as his camp sought to square it with his own signature health care reform passed in Massachusetts when he served as governor. Under Romneycare, Bay State residents are assessed a penalty if they don't have health insurance.
Democrats were quick to mock Romney's apparent reversal.
"Sounds like a flip-flop to me," said Elizabeth Warren, a former Obama administration official who is running for the U.S. Senate against Romney protege U.S. Sen. Scott Brown.
Meanwhile, Republicans acknowledged that the shift also could poke holes in Romney's major campaign argument that he didn't hike taxes as governor.
"I do think his plan now is going to be his vulnerability when it comes to raising taxes," Dennehy said.
The Romney camp's mixed messages come as Rupert Murdoch and other conservative titans have urged a staff shake-up ahead of this fall's heavyweight bout against Obama.
