Flipper- Mitt Romney?

Well, as it is now quite obvious from my posts that I am indeed a Mormon, most of my friends, (especially online) assume that I support Mitt Romney, the Mormon candidate. Quite false, in fact- I've been quite enamored with McCain, Huckabee, Obama, and even at times with Hillary and Edwards.

In other words, I'm still not sure where my normally republican vote will land.

However, there is at least one criticism of Mitt Romney I would like to help him combat- because I think that idiots throwing false criticism around is a travesty to the political system, most especially because such things are almost impossible to combat.

The dolphin, "Flipper," sporting his "Flip Romney" shirt has often been present at Romney campaign events, I'm told, and I would just love to level this criticism- Romney's own- against the cheeky dolphin: "You'll find that most people of some intelligence tend to learn over time."

Romney is the face of good manners as he says it, but a less kind response may be warranted:

"What the crap do you expect a reasonable person to do when they find out they're wrong?"

"Do YOU intend to continue catching fish even after you see the nets lower around you, you idiot dolphin? I intend not to be on the next sob-poster promoting dolphin-safe tuna!"

Because despite his record, in which he has changed on a number of issues (not as many as reported by the mass media), Romney seems to me to be a welcome change- a person of some intelligence.

I draw again upon comparison.

I read some years ago an article about one of those special chess matches between someone like Gary Kasparov and a supercomputer. The computer made a mistake- a bad move. The player made the comment afterward that the computer had a huge advantage in that right- it was perfectly willing to admit defeat, cut losses, move back to the original position, and get into a correct position- one that would lead it to victory. (I believe that the computer won this particular match-up.) If there is a reason that I vote for Mitt Romney, it will be for the same reason Flipper comes to his events. To castigate someone for being willing to, over the course of years, change his position on key issues when presented with new information on them is ludicrous. Here we are, all saying that America is on the wrong course, and then beating up on the man who is willing to change his stance on issues.

Isn't a change of course what we want? The Media and the Nation bewail Bush's unwillingness to change his stance on Iraq despite indicators that there wasn't the threat they thought there was- what they were really doing, I expect, is simply doing what America expects of its politicians: staying the line. They took a stance, and because their poll numbers and their credibility could not survive a 'flip' on that stance, they simply stayed with it. I would like to take this moment to remind the American public, which includes myself, that politicians do watch and listen to us, but we send them very, very mixed messages. We demand one course of action but vote for another. We as a public (myself included!) could use a serious course in Public Behavior to help us learn how to influence things that way we really want them.

So, in other words, I commend Mitt Romney for his willingness to vote for what he finds to be the truth, the right, rather than bow to the very syndrome we, as the Public, demand that he bows to: he can't move his chess piece back because he'll lose face. I may not vote for you, Governor Romney, but I commend you for being willing to take the hit when you find yourself in the wrong camp. I suggest the Flipper also practices learning to flip like Romney.

Maybe if we all learn it, our nation won't end up dead on the deck of a ship surrounded by tuna, with the subtitle: Never learned to to change when truth demanded it.