Mitt Romney took a real risk in moments ago by trying to attack Texas Gov. Rick Perry as a flip flopper on Social Security, because it opened up a whole can of worms on one of Romney’s biggest weaknesses: his long track record of changing positions.
Perry, more prepared tonight, quickly seized on this opening by attacking Romney for altering the paperback version of his own book to change the section on health care to make it more hostile to Obamacare. While Perry fudged the details a bit, he was right in the broader point, Romney did change his paper back version of the book to be more Tea Party friendly, as detailed here.
As for Romney’s attempt to distinguish his own health care plan from Obama’s, I wrote about the top five failed defenses of Romneycare here. Remember: Both plans force individuals to purchase insurance under the threat of a penalty, expand Medicaid, and provide subsidies for individuals to purchase government-designed insurance policies on a government run exchange.
Ryan Lizza had a long piece on how the Massachusetts plan was the model for Obamacare.
