A Great Week for Romney

So says Dean Barnett, who bravely tackles the small issue of whether "Romney is a flip-flopper and an opportunist":

As someone who knows him and who is familiar with his character, it annoys me no end to see Romney’s detractors so relentlessly peddle such an inaccurate caricature.

But there's an undeniable political upside to this development. It will hardly be possible for the press to release a big 'breaking news' story on the eve of the Iowa primary that says in effect, 'This just in: Mitt Romney is a flip-flopper!!!' By the time the public is steeling itself to take a hard look at who should be its next President, the press will have punched itself out as far as Mitt Romney is concerned. Believe me – Barack Obama and Rudy Giuliani should be so fortunate.

And when the time finally comes for Romney to counterpunch after all the breathless 'expos ' have been written and all the YouTubes have been aired, Romney will find his opponents in the media as easy to knock out as George Foreman was in the 8th round of the Rumble in the Jungle. The governor will be able to respond to his critics with two easy smackdowns that will be devastating when the time is right. The first is an old John F. Kennedy saw: "It's not where you come from, but where you stand." The second will be a completely justified swipe at the pettiness and endlessly repetitive nature of these attacks: "I want to talk about our country's future. I will, even if the press and my opponents are obsessed with my past."

The fact is, Mitt Romney will have enough money and enough political skill to define himself when the time is right. The fact that the hostile factions of the press will no longer be relevant when that time comes is a wonderful bonus.