Des Moines Register endorses Romney.

By the way, does the Register employ high-school interns to write its endorsements? We read: “Ron Paul’s libertarian ideology would lead to economic chaos and isolationism, neither of which this nation can afford.”

Apart from the puerile-serioso “this nation,” what is this supposed to mean? The country can’t afford peace? We need more $5 trillion wars? Being more hated and isolated than ever before in history is something we can afford? And after more than a decade of Federal Reserve manipulation of interest rates and federal domination of the mortgage market, we are to fear “economic chaos” from stopping these things?

Oh, and this: Romney “has evolved from one-time independent to moderate Republican in liberal Massachusetts to proud conservative today. He does not deny changing his position on some issues, but he will say he has made mistakes and has learned from them. Though Romney has tended to adapt some positions to different times and places, he is hardly unique. It should be possible for a politician to say, ‘I was wrong, and I have changed my mind.’”

Romney said in 2002, “My views are progressive.” In 2007 he tried to run for president as a conservative. For the Des Moines Register, this total transformation in five years is a question of “I was wrong, and I have changed my mind.”

I suspect regular people might have a more colorful way of describing it.