A. Barton Hinkle on the Wealth of Similarities Between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama

Under different circumstances, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney could very well be the best of pals. Take foreign policy: Both Obama and Romney espouse the centrist approach of the diplomatic, academic, and think-tank establishment. On the budget and taxes, Romney and Obama are—again—different mostly at the margins. As for health care, conservative pundit Tucker Carlson put it best: "There are only two people in world history who have signed individual mandates into law. One is the president, [and] the other's the guy running against him." 

The real split, writes A. Barton Hinkle, is to be found not so much between the two big-government candidates themselves as in the electorate.