UT-Sen: Mitt Romney is exploring 2018 Senate run

[Brittain33]

I truly despise Romney - not just because of his embrace of horrifying policies, not just because of his record as a corporate leech, but because of his moral weaknesses in that he could change his views on abortion and gay rights and a host of other issues at age 60 on a dime because it's more electable to do so.

Did not Obama, Biden, Clinton, et. al. all change their views on gay rights for much the same reasons?

A very large share of Americans have changed their personal views on gay rights to become more accepting, and this reflects cultural changes that made people reexamine old beliefs. For Obama and Clinton, electoral calculations figured in (as it does for every politician) but in broad outlines it's nothing more than loads of people over 30 have done.

Flip-flopping on gay rights from "I'm for them" in Massachusetts 2002 to "I'm against them" in South Carolina in 2007 is really different.

To you original point, Obama did dial back his support for gay rights from the mid-90s when he ran for office in the 2000s... but that would make his 2012 pivot seem more authentic because he expressed those views 20 years earlier.

[Brittain33]

Obama can be understood. But Clinton is as bad if not worse than Romney.

Oh there's plenty of criticism to be made of Clinton. I didn't intend this to apply beyond gay rights.

[Brittain33]

Generally, when flip-flopping for electoral convenience, it makes sense to switch from a position that is less popular to one that is more popular.

But it's also true that a change of heart is usually from a position that is less popular to one that is more popular. How can you distinguish the two?

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Not really, see above. You just happen to approve of one switch and disapprove of another.
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Literally hundreds of millions of Americans have switched their views from against gay rights to for gay rights in my adult lifetime (I am 40). The number who have switched in the other direction I can probably count on one hand, and usually it's because of a personal trauma. Romney's flip-flop is evaluated against that background.

I'm a gay man in Massachusetts who personally struggled against Mitt Romney's campaign against same-sex marriage from 2003-2006 through brutal fights in the legislature. So, yes, I have a stronger opinion on his change from "gay rights are ok" to "we must defend traditional marriage/hey South Carolina vote Romney '08!" than your average change because it's personal to me and I saw up-close how cynical and callous he was being.

Since Romney's backwardness on gay rights probably contributed to his loss in 2012, I can say I heartily approve of it in one sense.

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I voted for Clinton over Obama in the 2008 primaries because I mistrusted Obama's cynicism on gay rights, in fact. Google Donnie McClurkin.

Clinton was cynical as well, but at least everyone knew that and there was no scope to be disappointed.

[Brittain33]

Romney's flip-flop hurt people (including me, personally) who were excluded from the legal protections of marriage to boost his own career. Clinton's and Obama's "flip-flops" brought legal relief and protection to tens of thousands, ultimately millions of people who suffered from that exclusion. I can't shut my eyes and ears to the moral content of their decisions.