You know how every time President Obama's health care reform plan comes up in the Republican primary, Mitt Romney says that while it is similar to his own plan in Massachusetts, he believes it should be repealed in its entirety because states should be allowed to choose their own plans?
Well, via video sleuth Andrew Kaczynski, here he is in April 2010 answering questions before speaking at Vanderbilt University saying that while he supports repealing some provisions of Obamacare, he also wants to keep parts of the law in place.
Romney's bottom-line in comparing Romneycare and Obamacare:
Some similarities and some differences. And I hope we're ultimately able to eliminate some of the differences—repeal the bad, and keep the good.
Romney wasn't specific about exactly which provisions he wanted to keep, but in the video he specifically noted that both Romneycare and Obamacare feature an individual mandate, state-based exchanges, portability and a ban on denying coverage due to preexisting conditions. At the very least a casual listener would have thought those were the provisions he wanted to maintain.
As Think Progress points out, that same month Romney had told a conservative blogger that he favored retaining the individual mandate.
I was one of the first in line to the book signing, and when my turn came I asked Gov. Romney if I could ask him a question. After he told me that this was OK, I posed the following question to him:
“You have stated your intention to spearhead the effort to repeal the ‘worst aspects’ of Obamacare, does this include the repeal of the individual mandate and pre-existing exclusion?”
The Governor’s answer:
“No.”
Gov. Romney went on to explain that he does not wish to repeal these aspects because of the deleterious effect it would have on those with pre-existing conditions in obtaining health insurance.
As far as I know, there's no video of that. But between this newly uncovered video and that report from April 2010, it's clear that within the last two years, Mitt Romney did not support fully repealing Obamacare. Now he says he does. The only question is who will come to regret it more: Mitt Romney, should it cost him the nomination, or Republican primary voters, who don't realize the dishonesty of the man they are about to nominate.