Is it me, or does Romney look worse every time he speaks?

Mitt Romney has given up on just defending Romney Care, he has, now, begun to dig earthworks

Requiring people to have health insurance is “conservative,” GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney told MSNBC on Wednesday, but only if states do it.

The argument aims to improve Romney’s appeal to Republican voters concerned about the healthcare reform plan he signed into law as governor of Massachusetts in 2006. The Massachusetts law contains an individual mandate similar to the one in President Obama’s healthcare law, which conservatives despise.

So, mandates are conservative now?

“Personal responsibility,” Romney said, “is more conservative in my view than something being given out for free by government.”

“There were two options in my state,” he said. “One was to continue to allow people without insurance to go to the hospital and get free care, paid for by the government, paid for by taxpayers.”

“The best idea is to let each state craft their own solution because that’s, after all, the heart of conservatism: to follow the Constitution,” he said.

OK, I can follow the idea that a state making such a law is quite different from the federal government doing it. I can even entertain the notion that if, and only if the people of a state, by referendum, pass a mandate then it might be acceptable. after all, a state can, under the Constitution, do many things that the federal government is constrained from doing.

Any government mandate requiring citizens buy health care, however, is, and SHOULD BE extremely unpopular amongst Conservatives. Such a mandate rubs us wrong, as it should. My biggest concern revolves around the government, yes, even a state government mandating that I buy health coverage, will lead to more nefarious government ventures.Yes, I believe in that “slippery slope”. I have seen governments do it over and again. A law passed in the name of good ends up encroaching on liberties, and at a gigantic cost to boot.

I, like most Conservatives, am very jealous of my liberties, and do not tend to put much faith in the ability of government to constrain itself. As I have said over and again, once you allow the government into any area of your life, you have endangered liberty. Maybe that is my biggest issue with Romney. He simply does not seem to grasp what Conservatism is. Ideals like personal liberty seem rather abstract to him, consider his view of the right to keep and bear arms and that is the last quality I would seek in any political leader, most of all in a president.

One final question. Are you paying attention Ann Coulter? The one reason Coulter gives for Romney is that we have to repeal Obama Care before it kicks in. a point I agree with by the way. But the problem is this, Mitt flips, he flops, and he is on record as DEFENDING the worst aspect of Obama Care, the individual mandate. Hello! Reality paging Ann Coulter. You are putting all your eggs in the Romney basket, but Romney favors, pay attention Ann, keeping the “good” in Obama Care. The good, including that individual mandate!

H/T to Ace