The Election—I

The Election—I: Michael Tomasky, Elizabeth Drew, and Cass R. Sunstein

Charles Ommanney/Reportage by Getty Images
Mitt and Ann Romney at the Republican National Convention, Tampa, August 28, 2012

Michael Tomasky

Mitt Romney’s clear win in the first debate shifted the momentum in the race and arrested the talk of his campaign’s incompetence. But the most interesting aspect of his performance—completely unexpected by observers, pretty obviously including the president—was the way Romney appeared to position himself as a moderate, contradicting the main positions he’d taken for the previous sixteen or so months of campaigning ...