If you thought former Massachusetts governor and still vulture capitalist Mitt Romney couldn't yell, "Me, too!" louder than he did in the third presidential debate, you haven't heard him on the stump lately.
Touting himself as an agent of change, he appears to have fallen in love with the president's 2008 campaign mantra. He is apparently all hopey that the changey thing will work out for him.
Romney, co-opting Obama's 2008 mantra of "change," vowed that if elected he will bring "real change" to a country at an economic turning point. "[Change] requires that we put aside the small and petty and demand the scale of change we deserve. We need real change, big change."
Yeah, I know. The jokes write themselves. Romney's the real candidate of change; just look at his positions. Of course he's for change; that way there'll be something left over for the middle class.
But there is a nugget of hard, undeniable truth to his usurpation of his rival's slogan from last cycle. A Republican victory next month would represent real, profound and lasting change in America.
The threadbare, gossamer net of regulations of big capital will be swept away. The hard-won rights of women and minorities, always a work in progress, will be set back fifty years. The few remaining elements of progressivism in our tax structure will be flushed down the loo.
And the quaint idea that a citizen's vote is the ultimate determinant of power in this country will finally be put to rest, enshrining the anonymously donated dollar as the final arbiter of leadership.
Don't let the humor blind you to the reality: Mr. Romney is indeed an agent of change.
So are the Four Horsemen.