How Romney Plays Neanderthal Conservatives.

While I unfortunately believe that Mitt Romney DOES believe some of the ultra-far right bullshit that passes as reasoned policy positions and thoughtful analysis in the Christianist/Tea Party base of the Republican Party, David Frum - no flaming liberal by any means - argues that Romney, in fact, rejects the batshitery but plays the cretins on the GOP base so that they believe he agrees with them.  Some might call what Romney does with these folks lying, but I'm sure he'd describe his gamesmanship as merely being "misinterpreted."  In a column Frum illustrates how Romney is playing the GOP base for fools.  Here are excerpts:

Gov. Romney is getting much better at inviting hard-core conservatives to believe that he agrees with them, even when he obviously does not. For example:

It's an article of faith among U.S. conservatives that the countries of southern Europe are in trouble—not because of the Euro currency—but because of excess public spending. It's an article of faith that the U.S. is in imminent danger of following.

On the other hand, the professional economists from whom Mitt Romney gets his advice believe neither of these things. And it's a fair bet that Romney inwardly agrees with his economists more than his base. 

Now carefully read this extract from Romney's interview yesterday with Jim Geraghty of NRO:

There is also a recognition in this country that what Greece and Italy and Spain are facing could conceivably be brought home to us. The recognition that you reach a point where the world decides that your obligations are perhaps not going to be met, or that they will be inflated away -- in which case people will ask for higher interest rates, and you'll find yourself in a doom loop.

That vivid phrase, "doom loop" gets the headline—and nicely obscures the way in which Romney has otherwise popped open the escape hatches from conservative doctrine.

"There is also a recognition in this country" nicely elides the question whether Romney himself believes in any parallel between America's situation and those of Greece, Spain, and Italy.

Can he keep it up? He may not have to. The conservative base's will to believe is a tenacious thing, and right now Mitt Romney is its primary beneficiary.