It's hard to blame Mitt Romney for frowning (Larry Downing/Reuters)
Mitt Romney's newest gambit:
If I Were President: Obamacare, One Year In
If I were president, on Day One I would issue an executive order paving the way for Obamacare waivers to all 50 states. The executive order would direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services and all relevant federal officials to return the maximum possible authority to the states to innovate and design health-care solutions that work best for them.
The irony of Romney's idea is that he's proposing to dismantle President Obama's health care reform law by embracing a key provision of that very same law—its waiver process. In fact, Romney's proposal to take advantage of the law's waiver process actually validates health care reform's inherent flexibility.
Moreover, it's very odd that Mitt Romney says his first order of business would be to issue an executive order rooted in the very law that he says is unconstitutional. If he really felt it were unconstitutional, shouldn't his first order of business be to seek its invalidation? Instead, he's validating it.
It's not difficult to see why Romney's gambit is failing miserably. According to the The Corner's Michael Walsh, Romney's argument proves why he "will never be president."
This is precisely, exactly what not to do on Day One, governor. On Day One, you make the first order of business signing the total repeal of Obamacare after it passes both houses of the new congress. ... The governor’s 50-state nullification strategy would be a surrender, not a victory, since it leaves the philosophical premise of Obamacare intact.
I just don't think there's any way for Mitt Romney to get out from underneath this one. If he really wants to be president, he'd be best off skipping 2012 altogether and trying again in 2016. It just isn't happening this cycle.