In fact, to any reasonable person, Romney’s reversals on such questions didn’t raise questions about his sincerity as much as answer them. It wouldn’t be unreasonable for someone who really admired Romney’s record as a businessman, or who really couldn’t stand Obama, to overlook Romney’s current right-wing stands on abortion and gay rights. But his sudden, convenient and implausibly explained reversals on these issues say something about his character that you can’t flip away quite so easily…

To me, these issues and the way Romney has handled them are characterological, unchangeable at this point, and stamp him as ethically unqualified to be entrusted with the presidency. To his former advisors quoted in the Times, they are merely strategic challenges to be overcome. Alex Castellanos says Romney should have gotten healthcare “litigated” and over with long before the 2012 campaign started. Doug Gross, a “prominent Iowa Republican,” suggests that Romney has to “present himself as genuine and not as someone chasing voters far to the right.” (That is, he can chase them, as long as he doesn’t present himself as the kind of guy who chases them.) “More than a dozen” previous Romney supporters worried whether he “could withstand scrutiny without being tempted to reinvent himself again.”