This strikes me as significant news: Utah's flagship newspaper The Salt Lake Tribune has just endorsed Obama. The reason? There are too many Mitts.
The Tribune endorsement notes that, under normal circumstances, Romney would self-evidently be its candidate of choice in the heavily Mormon state of Utah. Mitt has it all for Mormons. First and foremost, he is a Mormon, and a powerful and devout one at that. He's pro-business and Republican, and so for many Utah Mormons, what's not to like?
But then there's this:
Sadly, it [i.e., the Romney that Utahns thought they knew] is not the only Romney, as his campaign for the White House has made abundantly clear, first in his servile courtship of the tea party in order to win the nomination, and now as the party’s shape-shifting nominee. From his embrace of the party’s radical right wing, to subsequent portrayals of himself as a moderate champion of the middle class, Romney has raised the most frequently asked question of the campaign: "Who is this guy, really, and what in the world does he truly believe?"
The evidence suggests no clear answer, or at least one that would survive Romney’s next speech or sound bite. Politicians routinely tailor their words to suit an audience. Romney, though, is shameless, lavishing vastly diverse audiences with words, any words, they would trade their votes to hear.
And I suspect it's not merely in Utah that people have begun to notice that Mitt morphs at will, depending on his multiple audiences and what they want to hear. But it also seems to me very important to sit up and take notice when Mitt's own people, who know (or thought they knew) him better than anyone else come to these conclusions.
The graphic is from Art Against Ignorance via Tennessee Guerilla Women.
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