Mitt Romney wants you to know that he doesn't "use the word socialist" to describe Barack Obama (because he's a reasonable sort of fellow), but he also wants you to know that he might change his mind at some point in the future (because he's a desperate political hack).
BLITZER: Listen to Rick Perry.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
GOV. RICK PERRY (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I still believe they are socialist. I mean, their policies prove that almost daily. I mean, look, when all the answers emanate from Washington D.C., one size fits all, whether it's education policy or whether it's healthcare policy, that is, on its face, socialism.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
BLITZER: He's talking about the Obama administration's policies.
You agree with him?
ROMNEY: Well, you know, words have a lot of unintended meanings, and calling people socialists probably goes beyond the fact that it is true that President Obama's team and the president himself seem to believe that government has a better approach to our economy than does the private sector, and I disagree with that approach. I believe we have to have a government that's a partner, that is encouraging the private sector, encouraging freedom, encouraging free people. What they've done instead is add regulation, add taxation, add burdens to the free enterprise system, which does tend to make us more European. And Europe isn't working in Europe; Europe is not going to work in this country.
I don't use the word socialist or I haven't so far, but I do agree that the president's approach is government heavy, government intensive, and it's not working.
BLITZER: You use the word more European than socialist, is that what you're saying?
ROMNEY: I -- I just say, government heavy, Washington heavy.
I'm not sure what else to say about this other than it may be the first recorded example of a presidential candidate explicitly reserving the right to flip-flop. And it's no shock that it came from Mitt Romney.
12:03 PM PT: I also just noticed that literally two or three sentences after saying Obama is more European than socialist, he seemed to flip-flop from that phrasing when Blitzer pressed him on it. What a disaster of a candidate Romney is.