Romney refuses to sign anti-abortion pledge (though insisting he is "pro-life".

[pampango]

The hard-right GOP likes to say that Mitt Romney is a flip-flopper. That is an insult just one step down from “moderate” in their book. The fact is, Romney is a realist. He didn’t govern out of a dug-in Republican position. No one can do that in Massachusetts and survive. He learned the art of compromise and pragmatism. Romney is finding himself in the same situation with the hard-right side of the Republican Party that President Obama finds himself in with the hard-left of the Democrats.

The far right of the Republican Party – the Tea Partiers whose understanding of global economics could fit in a tea cup and the social extremists who have been rightfully nicknamed the “Christian Taliban” – are desperate to find a candidate to take over and dethrone Romney as the front runner.

The far left of the Democratic Party would entertain a primary challenge to President Obama if they could find someone willing to lead the fight. This is fundamentally short-sighted and useless. They are blaming Obama for not being Bush. Obama has spent three years head-butting another thing the founding fathers never dreamed of – the implacable power of the filibuster. Over 300 laws and appointments were deep-sixed by the Republicans who only needed one man to stand up and say “I object” to stop the bill cold, cutting off debate and votes on any law they thought would make Obama a successful president. The Democratic Party has so far been completely incapable of explaining this simple situation to their base.

If the progressives want their agenda fulfilled, they should be concentrating on increasing the Democratic presence in the Senate to reach filibuster-proof levels (that mean holding at least 59 seats outright, with Independent Bernie Sanders as #60) and regaining control of the House, preferably with more than the bare 218 needed to pass a bill. In both chambers, the greater the majority the better because there are too many “conservative” Democrats there already to assure support of more progressive bills.

http://lezgetreal.com/2011/06/romney-won%E2%80%99t-play-the-pledge-game/