Richard Cohen of the Washington Post phoned it in today, writing a column about Mitt Romney that could have been written a year old and simply filed.

I joke, of course. But the way things are going, I would not be surprised if the possibility of a Romney religious conversion has gone from inconceivable to a focus group for, as they say, further study. After all, the same bloc of voters -- conservative Christians -- that once found Romney suspiciously liberal on abortion and gay rights does not much like his Mormonism, either. This nice touch of intolerance has got to worry Romney. In recent polls, something like one-third of all voters have said they would be less likely to vote for a Mormon candidate -- and the figure is a bit higher (39 percent) among Republicans. Iowa, where conservative Christians comprise about 37 percent of the GOP electorate, could be trouble.

Wow! Christian conservatives could be trouble? Mitt's moderated his positions on abortion and gay marriage? I'm shocked at the shear originality.

Apparently, not all journalists are lazy. Rich Lowry really did shock me with his perceptive criticism of the Romney campaign.

It seems clear to me that Romney is a pretty conservative guy, who for political expediency's sake tacked left in Massachusetts and now for the same reason is tacking right—although this latest tack is probably more consistent with what he really believes. If Romney had made his career pretty much anywhere else but in Massachusetts, he wouldn't be having this problem.

Bingo.

As the scion of good Mormon family, there is simply no way for Mitt to have acquired such liberal views on gays and abortion. As Lowry correctly reasons, these were political accommodations necessary to get things done in a blue state. Romney's statements about respecting the magestria of religious and political values appear to have a historical foundation.

Cohen has fallen prey to the two dimensional caricaturization the left relies on to understand conservatives. Lowry on the other hand, goes one step further to accurate identify a real Romney weakness.

Another friend, on the other hand, pointed out that conservatives usually don't run national races on just being conservative. They bring a flavor and a spin to their conservatism. It isn't a check-the-box exercise. They apply their conservatism to the problems of the day and come up with their own variety—Bush, Newt, and Reagan all did this. Romney hasn't yet. He's just collected a bunch of conservative positions, and is running on the theme of competitiveness. That risks seeming a lot like Bob Dole's "I can be Ronald Reagan if you want me to be."

Its something that been nagging at me--Romney wants to run as a conservative, but he's using a Democrat-style of electioneering, shibboleths to the various constituencies--style over substance.

Its an easy mistake to make for a guy whose political experience is comprised of running for office in a blue state.