Earlier today I didn't have time to comment on the sheer creepiness of Mitt Romney's remark to Mark Leibovich about his infamous "47 percent" blunder of 2012, but creepy it was--and characteristically Mitt. I now have a moment.
Romney laments: "My mistake was that I was speaking in a way that reflected back to the man [in the elite gathering]. If I had been able to see the camera, I would have remembered that I was talking to the whole world, not just the man."
In other words, Romney regrets either a) not having lied to a member of his political base, or b) that he was lying to a member of his political base--but either way, his only profound regret is that the lie/failed lie was caught on camera. In this context, one is reminded of Mitt's 2012 debate performance in which he stated his noble objection to a landscape contractor having employed undocumented workers: "I’m running for office, for Pete’s sake, I can’t have illegals."
Another way of putting Mitt's creepiness is that he's frighteningly reminiscent of Hillary: the ultimate pragmatist without a discernible dollop of principles. Watching these two pure opportunists slug it out in the general campaign should, for the civically conscientious, just about polish off any vestigial faith they may have in representative democracy. If Mitt & Hillary are the best the world's lone superpower has to offer, then we're in trouble. But you already knew that.