Is Mitt Romney about to flip flop on illegal immigration and the DREAM Act?

   The biggest problem that many conservatives have with Mitt Romney is the fact that he is a fake and a phony with no core or true political beliefs other than the fact he believes he deserves to be president. This has many conservatives worried that Mitt Romney will say or do whatever it takes to win the presidency and nobody can really be sure how he will govern if elected–after all, this is the man who once ran to the left of Ted Kennedy and if the political winds change at any time during his presidency it is likely he will be swept right up into them instead of standing firm against them.

  We got a little confirmation of our worries by a highly unlikely source in one of Mitt Romney’s top level campaign aides, Eric Fehrnstrom,  who compared the Republican nominee to an Etch-A-Sketch which could be shaken up during the general campaign in order to give Romney a blank slate from which to work. Mitt Romney’s clarification did not help to clear things up, in my opinion, when he stated he was “running as a conservative.” He didn’t say he was a conservative, simply that he was running as one. A very interesting choice of words, don’t you think?

  So conservatives have been hoping that the Republican primary version of Mitt Romney was the real Mitt Romney–and have been hoping that Ann Coulter’s laughable assertion that Romney tricked Massachusetts liberals into voting for him was actually true–and have been holding their breath each time he speaks hoping that he will remain true to conservative values.

 Sadly we may have just gotten our first hint that Mitt Romney might be stringing the conservatives along after all.

  Aside from the economy and spending there is another issue which is not quite as important but is very important none the less, and it actually does tie into the economy and spending, and this is an issue which will have to be dealt with sooner rather than later. I am talking about illegal immigration and during the debates Mitt Romney took what was perhaps the most hardline stance against illegal immigration out of all the candidates. He promised us we could trust him to crack down on the ever-growing problem.

  You might remember that moment during one of the debates when Rick Perry came under fire for passing a version of the DREAM Act in Texas and when he was defending himself he basically called anyone who opposed the legislation heartless. Well, Mitt Romney was one of those heartless people Rick Perry was referring to because he called the DREAM Act a magnet which would pull people into the country who might otherwise not come in. Here is more of what he said at that time:

That kind of magnet draws people into this country to get that education to get the hundred thousand dollar break. It make no sense,” Romney said, referring to a hypothetical student who took advantage of the roughly $22,000 price differential for all four years required to earn a bachelor’s degree

   That is a pretty cut and dried position; providing the children of illegal immigrants in-state tuition rates encourages people to enter the United States illegally to take advantage of our system, that is what Mitt Romney said and there is little wiggle room to back down without seeming like a flip flopper, but that might be exactly what Mitt Romney is now trying to accomplish.

  Republican Senator, and vice president candidate, Marco Rubio is in the process of creating his own version of the DREAM Act and it appears as if Mitt Romney might be softening his hardline stance against it. Romney has stated there are quite a few good points in it, but stated he was still studying it, while Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach states that if Rubio’s plan contains any time of amnesty he expects Mitt Romney to hold firm in his opposition to such legislation.

  It should be noted that while Kris Kobach claims he has advised Mitt Romney on illegal immigration he holds no official spot on his campaign staff so it isn’t clear if he has actually talked to Mitt Romney about Marco Rubio’s version of the DREAM Act. (Which Marco Rubio has hinted will contain a special visa allowing people to work and go to school in the United States while they are waiting in line to become legal.)

  Mitt Romney opposed the DREAM Act when it was passed by a Republican opponent–Rick Perry–yet is now claiming he is open to the DREAM Act when another Republican–Marco Rubio–is proposing it even though there may actually be a form of amnesty included in the bill. Two different Republicans with two similar versions of the DREAM Act, so why is Mitt Romney not dismissing it out of hand?

  The answer could be twofold: first, Marco Rubio happens to be Hispanic and there is the possibility that Mitt Romney doesn’t want to alienate either Rubio or his constituents, and second; we are technically now in the general election and the Etch-A-Sketch has been shaken. Neither scenario is comforting because if the former is the truth it shows us that Mitt Romney will end up caving on certain issues for fear of losing votes, and if the latter is true we must now pay close attention to which Mitt Romney emerges from the blank slate he is in the process of creating.

  Mitt Romney made no mention of opposing the bill if it contained a form of amnesty, which would have been an easy statement to make if he still held this position, and while we don’t know exactly what is in Rubio’s bill at this point both the bill and Mitt Romney’s reaction to it bears watching closely, because it looks as if Mitt Romney is once again playing both sides of the fence.