Conservative Website RedState Finds A Gem From Romney's Past

I enjoy checking out Right-Wing websites and television when things are going badly for the GOP, and this last week was definitely a bad one for Republicans. This post from Erick Erickson at RedState is pretty interesting:

Had Michigan not been as close, the Democrats would have waited to spring this on us in the general election. Luckily we have it now and I hope Ohio voters are paying attention.

In July 2009, Mitt Romney wrote an op-ed in USA Today urging Barack Obama to use an individual mandate at the national level to control healthcare costs.

On the campaign trail now, Mitt Romney says the individual mandate is appropriate for Massachusetts, but not the nation. Repeatedly in debates, Romney has said he opposes a national individual mandate.

But back in 2009, as Barack Obama was formulating his healthcare vision for the country, Mitt Romney encouraged him publicly to use an individual mandate. In his op-ed, Governor Romney suggested that the federal government learn from Massachusetts how to make healthcare available for all. One of those things was “Using tax penalties, as we did, or tax credits, as others have proposed, encourages “free riders” to take responsibility for themselves rather than pass their medical costs on to others."

Needless to say, this is a disaster for the Romney Camp. Mitt, all throughout the current campaign, has taken the ridiculous position that RomneyCare was right for Massachusetts but wrong for the country. Now it turns out that he encourage Obama to pass RomneyCare on the national level, which is essentially what ended up happening.

We'll see if this particular story gets any play during the run-up to Super Tuesday. If it does, then it could affect the outcome of some of this Tuesday's too-close-to-call primaries (like Ohio and Tennessee).