As we've discussed numerous times, Mitt Romney's immigration policy proposals are the harshest out of all past and present presidential candidates during this election cycle. So harsh in fact that he managed to make Newt Gingrich seem compassionate for a few minutes when Gingrich refused to agree with deporting grandmothers.
The lead architect of Romney's immigration policy is Kris Kobach, the author of "Papers Please" anti-immigration law, who since the beginning of the year has been closely advising the Romney campaign.
Finding themselves trailing President Obama by over 50 percent among Latino voters however, the Romney campaign now appears to be distancing themselves from Kris Kobach, who they now categorize as a "supporter" rather than an adviser.
The only problem is Kobach apparently didn't get the memo.
Politico’s Glenn Thrush reports today that the Romney campaign appears to be distancing itself from the controversial adviser as it pivots to the general election and seeks to appeal to Hispanic voters. [...]
However, Kobach disputes this claim. Reached by ThinkProgress this afternoon, Kobach said, “No, my relationship with the campaign has not changed. Still doing the same thing I was doing before.” Asked what that entails, he said, “providing advice on immigration policy.” “I don’t want to go into great detail, but I communicate regularly with senior members of Romney’s team,” he explained.
As Joe Biden said, Mitt Romney can try to shake his etch-a-sketch and draw a new picture, but it's not going to work. Because there's nowhere he can go with this without alienating more voters, whether they're part of the Latino community or members of the lunatic base.
If Mitt Romney does decide to walk back his position(s) on immigration, it will confirm the suspicion that he thinks voters, and Latino voters more specifically, are stupid. Because he's relying on the Latino community believing that he had a sudden change of heart after paling around with the father of "Papers Please" for the last five months while he closed in on the nomination.
Mitt Romney declared that "Papers Please" could serve as a "model for country," but now he expects you to forget all of that.
He wants to have his cake and eat it too. Don't buy it.