To this, I would just add that this is not the first time that Romney has flirted with common-sense Keynesianism. On the campaign trail in Michigan in February, he had this to say: “If you just cut, if all you’re thinking about doing is cutting spending, as you cut spending you’ll slow down the economy. So you have to, at the same time, create pro-growth tax policies.” At the time, I declared this line the classic Romneyesque gaffe—one that is substantively upsetting to people on the left and right simultaneously, much as his line about “not being concerned about the very poor” was.

That is, it would be substantively upsetting to people on the right if they actually held firmly the anti-Keynesian orthodoxy that Romney’s remarks violated—or if they believed that he believed what he was saying. Given that Romney today is back to attacking the 2009 stimulus plan as his central campaign theme of the day, one can excuse even true believers in anti-Keynesian orthodoxy for not being entirely sure whether Romney is with them or not.