Sullivan has a perfect example of Romney taking two utterly opposing positions within only a few months of one another, one in which he sounds reasonable and another where he repeats the right wing talking points in order to appeal to the base.
“I believe based on what I read that the world is getting warmer. And number two, I believe that humans contribute to that. I don’t know how much our contribution is to that, because I know that there have been periods of greater heat and warmth in the past but I believe we contribute to that. And so I think it’s important for us to reduce our emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases that may well be significant contributors to the climate change and the global warming that you’re seeing,” – Mitt Romney, June 3, 2011.
“My view is that we don’t know what’s causing climate change on this planet. And the idea of spending trillions and trillions of dollars to try to reduce CO2 emissions is not the right course for us,” – Mitt Romney, October 27.
Of course, his first position was based on what he’d read. And in the meantime he read something else, likely internal polling results that show the Republican base rejecting that position. And if he gets the nomination, he’ll then pivot back to something closer to the first position.