A. Barton Hinkle on Mitt Romney, the Liberal Swine Conservatives Love

A few months ago conservatives were bashing Mitt Romney with such vigor they made a Mongol invasion look genteel. To Deroy Murdock of National Review, "Willard Mitt Romney's latest flip flop" reminded him of Andy Warhol's quip: "That's not fake. It's real plastic." Compared to Romney, Murdock wrote, "I have seen mannequins in less empty suits." Mona Charen, another National Review regular, spoke on behalf of all right-thinking people when she said positions such as Romney's "make our hearts sink." Victor Davis Hanson, also of National Review, termed Romney the "castor oil candidate."

At TownHall.com – a clearinghouse of conservative opinion – Ben Shapiro compared Romney to Harold Hill, the "big city con man" of musical fame: "Romney has somehow suckered much of the conservative world into believing that he is a solid fiscal, social and foreign policy conservative" when, in reality, Romney is an "all out liberal." Romney is "about as strong a social conservative," he went on, "as RuPaul"—the country's most famous drag queen.

The conservative movement, writes A. Barton Hinkle, has since changed its tune.