Mitt Romney: Will two flips make a flop? (Orig. photo: Pool/Reuters)
Mitt Romney
on Jan. 4, one day after unofficial results from the Iowa Caucuses showed him leading Rick Santorum by eight votes:
It sure is nice to have a win, I tell you.
And Mitt Romney today, shortly after the Iowa Republican Party revealed their final certified tally showed Rick Santorum was ahead by 34 votes:
The results from Iowa caucus night revealed a virtual tie.
Romney most certainly would defend his declaration of a "virtual tie" based on the fact that results from several precincts were conveniently lost and could not be included in the final certified total. (Rick Santorum led the unofficial results in those precincts by 35 votes, by the way.) But if you can't declare victory without final certified results, why did he declare victory the first time around? The answer is obvious: because it suited his interests.
But now, perhaps sensing the absurdity of his position, Romney has called Rick Santorum to concede in Iowa—at least that's what he's done according to a Santorum spokesman. Assuming that's true, it means Mitt Romney not only flip-flopped on his definition of victory, but he flip-flopped on his flip-flop, all within a matter of hours.
11:51 AM PT: According to Jennifer Rubin, the Washington Post blogger who might as well be an official Romney campaign surrogate, Romney did not concede defeat to Santorum. So if that's true, he didn't flip-flop-flip—he just flip-flopped. Whichever it is...I'm laughing.
12:11 PM PT: Chris Cilizza says Romney's spokeswoman said "Gov. Romney called Sen. Santorum to congratulate him on the Iowa results." Ah, so he congratulated Santorum ... but didn't concede? Huh?