A matter of trust

Opinion: October 29, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

A matter of trust

Sacramento Bee: Mitt Romney has taken flip-flopping to new extremes. It’s not merely that he’s moved toward the political center for the general election, or that he’s equivocating on a few controversial issues.

It goes to the core of his presidential campaign — and to trust and character. How can Americans ever believe what he says, or that he’ll keep his promises?

Romney’s jaw-dropping willingness to so blithely change his positions for political expediency should also worry voters about how effective he would be in the White House. How could he successfully negotiate with leaders in Congress or around the globe if they can’t take him at his word?

While President Barack Obama can be faulted for failing to follow through on some campaign promises from 2008, it isn’t for a lack of trying, and it isn’t because he has dramatically changed his positions.

The question of who the real Romney is has dogged his candidacy from the start. GOP rival Jon Huntsman once called him “a perfectly lubricated weather vane.”

The presidential debates highlighted this flaw for all to see.Romney is trying to pull off these head-spinning political pirouettes despite the armies of fact checkers in the media. If his deeply cynical strategy succeeds, will it really matter again what candidates promise?