Euphemism of the Day: Romney calls Gingrich "zany"

By Michael J.W. Stickings

From the Times:

Mitt Romney is sharpening his warning to Republicans about the consequences of nominating Newt Gingrich, declaring in an interview on Wednesday: "Zany is not what we need in a president."

"Zany is great in a campaign. It's great on talk radio. It's great in print, it makes for fun reading," Mr. Romney told The New York Times. "But in terms of a president, we need a leader, and a leader needs to be someone who can bring Americans together."

By the way, "zany" is Romneyese for "egomaniacally insane."

Romney is quite right, of course, and it makes sense for him to contrast his own supposed steadiness with Newt's all-over-the-place inconsistency.

Though of course Romney has only been steady since he flipped right, a move of blatant political calculation, back in 2005. Christine O'Donnell inadvertantly hit the nail on the head when she said, upon endorsing him, that "he's been consistent since he changed his mind." (That's like saying Newt has been monogamous since his last extra-marital affair. Wait... that's exactly what Newt's been saying about himself.)

And, even here, we see how Mitt is trying to have it both ways. While he's been careful not to go along with the Republican rush to the right, at least not completely (knowing he'll have to go back to the center to have any chance of winning the general election), he's certainly been shamelessly courting Republican primary voters by (re)positioning himself as a staunch conservative, turning his back on most of his political career, which included being a sort of progressive moderate as Massachusetts governor.

But here he's saying that America needs a uniter, not a divider, that is, a president who isn't beholden to purely partisan interests. That may very well be what he truly believes, and he may well be something of a progressive moderate still, but isn't it rather zany for someone who wants so badly to win the Republican presidential nomination and who has presented himself as a dedicated conservative in line with the current right-wing state of the GOP to talk about bringing Americans together?