Now that the Blunt-Rubio amendment, which would have placed your boss between you and your doctor, has been voted down by a margin of 51 to 48 in the senate, I'd like to illuminate what future presidential nominee Mitt Romney had to say about it.
A little history -- yesterday at roughly 4 PM, Mitt Romney was asked if he supports the Blunt-Rubio amendment. It was a very clear question.
“Blunt-Rubio is being debated later this week that deals with allowing employers to ban providing female contraception.”
Romney's response was also crystal clear. "I'm not for the bill" he said.
However, by 5 PM Romney had reversed his previous answer and said he does support the bill. Claiming that he misunderstood the original question, he offered this explanation
ROMNEY: I didn’t understand his question. Of course I support the Blunt amendment. I thought he was talking about some state law that prevented people from getting contraception. So I simply misunderstood the question and of course I support the Blunt amendment…No, I simply misunderstood what he was talking about. I thought it was some Ohio legislation, where employers were prevented from providing contraceptives, and so I talked about contraceptives and so I really misunderstood the question. Of course Roy Blunt who is my liaison to the Senate is someone I support and of course I support that amendment. I clearly want to have religious exemption from Obamacare…. I really think all Americans should be allowed to get around this religious exemption.
The story could have ended with a simple flip-flop, but since Romney took the time to fully explain himself he inadvertently revealed that he simply has no idea what he's talking about.
Even if you take him for his word that he "misunderstood" the question, at no point does this explanation make any sense whatsoever. "Of course" he supports the Blunt amendment Romney says, however he quickly follows that up with an indication that he actually did understand the question by saying he thought it was a law that "prevented people from getting contraception," which is exactly what the Blunt-Rubio amendment would have done.
Not to be any less confusing, Romney then says he wants to "have religious exemption from Obamacare" but also thinks "all Americans should be allowed to get around this religious exemption." Two completely contradictory thoughts within the span of a single sentence.
I realize Mitt Romney is running for president, for Pete's sake, so he can't simply throw his hands up in the air and say "I got nothin'," but his campaign should know better by now than to send him off to school without packing his lunch for him. Because at this point I honestly don't know what Romney's actual position is even after dissecting everything he said.
Suffice to Romney's position is whatever primary voters want it to be. What he truly believes remains a mystery.
This is what happens when Mitt Romney goes off-script.