Mitt Romney's health care conundrum

In a nutshell, and in the candidate's own words:

“Actually, the chief justice in his opinion made it very clear that at the state level, states have the power to put in place mandates. They don’t need to require them to be called taxes in order for them to be constitutional. And as a result, Massachusetts’ mandate was a mandate, was a penalty, was described that way by the Legislature and by me, and so it stays as it was.”

Republicans were right.  The court's ruling could be the nail in the coffin on this race.  Problem for them is that it's the nail in Romney's coffin.  He can't talk about his own health care reforms vis-a-vis the Affordable Care Act without sounding like a two-faced hypocrite.

Romney's got a decent record as a good government, Midwestern/New England-style Republican.  Except now the base wants some fire-breathing, government-hating madman that typically only wins in the South, and Romney is stuck being someone he's not in an attempt to pander for votes.  Mitt Romney from ten years ago would be a much more difficult general election opponent for President Obama.  Too bad the GOP is too blind to see it.