Romney: Non-proliferation is a liberal issue

Watching McCain re-brand himself through surrogates is fascinating -- especially when they're incompetent surrogates like Mitt Romney.

The meme-of-the-week is that Barack Obama never reaches across the aisle. This is a non-starter, because Obama's worked on high-profile legislative efforts with republicans like Sam Brownback, Gordon Smith, Richard Lugar and others. But it's interesting, because it shows that the McCainiacs don't think they can win without recasting St. John as a moderate agent of change.

It also leads to hilarious rhetorical gymnastics like the kind Mittens engages in here, accusing Obama of only reaching across the aisle on knee-jerk "liberal" issues like ... nuclear non-proliferation and the gas crisis.

I also like how Mitt pronounces Sen. Richard Lugar's last name Lu-Gar, as if he were from Krypton.

Oddly, for the last eight years, non-proliferation has been a liberal issue, mostly due to the current administration's policy of seeking imaginary weapons at the expense of real ones. But stemming the tide of weapons of mass destruction has historically been, and should be, the ultimate bipartisan issue. That's why the most successful program of its type is called Nunn-Lugar, after Democrat Sam Nunn and, you guessed it, our second-favorite Kryptonian.

Wanting to keep weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of America's enemies isn't bipartisan enough for Romney. If only we could compromise on important issues, like Rachael Ray's scarf.