Republican Candidate for his party’s nomination, Mitt Romney, stuck his foot in his mouth again today.  Or was it intentional?

Here’s the quote from talkingpointsmemo.com:

It’s very easy to excite the base with incendiary comments. We’ve seen throughout the campaign if you’re willing to say really outrageous things that are accusative, attacking of President Obama, that you’re going to jump up in the polls. I’m not willing to light my hair on fire to try and get support. I am who I am. I’m a person with extensive experience in the private sector, in the economy.

Conservative Talk Show King Rush Limbaugh had an excellent observation about Mitt’s latest gaffe:

All right. Gosh, these guys are making it so hard for me. So Romney’s not willing to say “incendiary” things about Obama to excite the base. Well, what does he say? Nice guy, just in over his head. What does this tell you that Romney thinks of the base? That it takes incendiary comments to turn you on. That all you want is somebody beating up on Obama. Somebody to come along and beat up Obama or set their hair on fire to get attention, something like that, and that’s all you care about. And maybe not all you care about, but that’s what really gets you off your duff. And Mitt Romney says, “I have got extensive experience in the private sector. I am not gonna criticize Obama.” If he’s not careful, you know how we joke about John Kerry, who, by the way, served in Vietnam — been pointing that out now for eight years — it isn’t gonna be long before everybody’s gonna say, “Mitt Romney, who had extensive experience in the private sector.”

Look, Romney people, you got to know, I love you. But I’m not the one saying what he’s saying. I did not raise the white flag in Michigan today. I didn’t say I’m not gonna say incendiary things just to attract the base. At least McCain waited until the general campaign to make it clear that anybody criticizing Obama would be fired. Here it’s happening in the primary. I’m not gonna make any incendiary comments to attract the base. I have extensive experience in the private sector. Obama can say whatever he wants about us and does, and the media can, and we’re not talking about incendiary, we’re talking about truth, I thought.

I’m getting this strange feeling of deja vu…all over again.  

And here’s the proof, courtesy of The Wall Street Journal, in an article posted June 5, 2008:

Barack Obama and John McCain spoke on the phone Wednesday night and agreed to engage in a “civil discussion in the campaign moving forward,” according to an Obama aide.

McCain initiated the call at 7:00pm EDT to congratulate Obama on securing the nomination after a hard-fought primary against Hillary Clinton.

This is the first time the opponents have spoken since Obama clinched the number of delegates needed to capture the nomination on Tuesday.

As of now, Obama and McCain have exchanged rhetoric that by most counts would not be characterized as “civil.” Obama has come down on his Republican rival over a gaffe he made about troop levels and has accused him of not understanding the economy. McCain, meanwhile, has attacked the Democratic nominee over his lack of foreign policy experience and his willingness to meet with leaders of rogue nations.

During his victory rally in St. Paul, Minn., on Tuesday, Obama praised McCain for his military service and said he is “a genuine American hero.” But criticized him for offering “four more years of the failed Bush policies.”

McCain has called for a series of ten joint town hall style meetings with Obama. The Illinois senator is also open to the proposal of joint appearances, and the two campaigns are in talks.

“The American people deserve a debate worthy of their concerns and hopes for the future. Everyone can celebrate today’s step toward that goal with an agreement, in spirit, between the McCain and Obama campaigns to participate in joint town hall appearances,” McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker said in a statement.

Back on January 19, 2012 at the CNN Republican Candidate Debate, Romney said:

And — well, let’s see. I guess — I guess I also would go back and take every moment I spent talking about one of the guys on the stage and spent that time talking about Barack Obama because…the — the truth is that — that Barack Obama is just way over his head and he’s taking our country down a path that is very dangerous. He’s making us more and more like a European social welfare state. He’s making us an entitlement society. He’s taking away the rights of our citizens. He believes government should run this country.

Look, the right course for America is to return to our fundamental principles, and I would be talking about that more, and probably about my colleagues less because frankly, any one of them would be a better president than the one we’ve got.

Gov. Romney is right about one thing:  America needs to return to our fundamental principles.  However, in order to accomplish that, we will need a leader who will fight to restore them, not stick his finger up in the air to determine from which direction the wind is blowing, before he makes a presidential decision.

And, we need a Republican Candidate who will fight to win the Presidency.

We already tried nominating a Moderate in 2008….and we all remember how that fiasco turned out.