This is the devastating DNC web video that has got PolitiFact so alarmed
Just as it did
earlier on the issue of health care reform, PolitiFact
says it wasn't fair for Democrats to call this a flip-flop*:
Screen text: For assault weapons ban
Video clip of Romney speaking [in 2004]: "I just signed a piece of legislation extending the ban on certain assault weapons."
Screen text: Against assault weapons ban
Video clip of Romney speaking [in 2008]: "I do not support any new legislation of an assault weapon ban nature."
According to PolitiFact, it's not fair to call that a flip-flop because in the same 2008 debate during which Romney said he does "not support any new legislation of an assault weapon ban nature," he also said that he "would have signed the assault weapon ban" as president. Consequently:
The difficulty of analyzing this charge is that Romney's position on an assault-weapons ban in the 2008 debate was so muddled that it's hard to pin down whether he actually flip-flopped. It's more an example of an internal inconsistency than a flip-flop per se. In fact, the DNC might have made a more convincing argument simply by quoting the confilcting parts of Romney’s 2008 debate comment.
So it was misleading to call Mitt Romney a flip-flopper because the DNC didn't include Romney's entire 2008 quote ... and yet if they had aired the entire Romney quote, it would have revealed an "internal inconsistency." In other words, it would have revealed that Romney had flip-flopped in the span of 60 seconds, because flip-flop really is just another way of saying inconsistent.
And while it's true that what Romney said in 2008 was a flip-flop in and of itself, that doesn't change the fact that between 2004 and 2008 he flip-flopped as well. All it means is that in addition to flip-flopping, Mitt Romney is willing to speak out of both sides of his mouth at the same time. And yet despite that obvious reality, PolitiFact insists on saying it is the DNC that is misleading. By any reasonable standard, that claim is utter rubbish.
*If I were as unreasonable and tendentious as PolitiFact, I'd note that the DNC ad does not actually accuse Romney of flip-flopping. In the portion of the video they are writing about it merely says Mitt Romney isn't a "straight-shooter," though in the rest of the video it does feature quotes from third parties calling him a flip-flopper. But never does the DNC itself use those words. Except in the video's tags. Maybe that's what Politifact is referring to?