In 2008, a conservative writer warned Barack Obama he should avoid becoming like Mitt Romney. “Romney faltered in large part, the writer explained, “because he lacked a core — or rather couldn’t convince voters that he had a core set of beliefs that wasn’t contrived for political convenience.”
In another post, the writer alluded to the “chameleon/negativity problem Romney has.”
Surprisingly, the writer was Jennifer Rubin. Yes, that Jennifer Rubin.
Since joining the Washington Post, Rubin has become Mitt Romney’s biggest cheerleader in the media — doing whatever it took to savage his opponents along the way. But it wasn’t always that way. She was once very skeptical — even critical — of Romney.
In 2008, Rubin accused Romney of “affecting an John Edwards/Ross Perot holier than thou (at least holier than McCain) pose…”
“Like many of these small fibs,” she wrote, “it was easily disproved and unnecessary.”
In a 2007 Politico column about Ann Coulter, she noted that Romney “needs more bad press like a hole in the head.” She also found fault with his presidential announcement (which took place at the Henry Ford Museum.)
On other occasion, Rubin criticized Romney’s campaign style. “Today I received no less than seven missives from the Romney e-mail machine …. All were negative attacks on either Huckabee or McCain” she wrote.
“It seems apparent that McCain’s team has a far more sophisticated and more inclusive new media operation,” Rubin told RedState’s Rob Bluey.
Rubin also took time to appear on MSNBC’s “Tucker,” in order to discuss an article she had written titled: “Mitt Romney’s Conversion: His pro-life turn is more recent than you think.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTaajvumeYwRubin also didn’t seem terribly broken up over Romney’s decision to withdraw from the 2008 race, writing:
I wonder if seeing him mroe (sic) humble and showing a little emotion( not crying, just some steely determination) would have been better than the “Fine, everything is just fine” silver metal routine. He’s obviously invested in the Washington outisder (sic) theme. At least this week.
Note: Rubin is a prolific writer, and this represents only a fraction of what she wrote about Mitt Romney during the ’08 cycle. Still, it is representative of her general tone. Perhaps someone else will have the time to cull through her entire oeuvre?
Regardless, based on this brief foray into her 2008 campaign coverage, it is interesting to note just how dramatically her viewpoints changed — in such a short period of time.
It’s almost, well, Romneyesque.