Issue shifting and volte face switcheroos that would embarrass many a candidate seem natural for Romney. It's so much a part of the man, it's almost second nature. Of course he's never without a gloss or rationalization to explain his ever-changing mind - the deeply felt convictions that prompted yet another reconsideration on issues as various as abortion, healthcare, climate change, gun control, gay rights, immigration, tax pledges, Ronald Reagan and the auto industry... to name a few.

Romney's checkered past makes you wonder if playing fast and loose is part of an actual strategy of sorts. Take the ad the Romney campaign ran that willfully distorted a quote by President Obama.

In the ad, the President is heard saying "If we keep talking about the economy. we're going to lose."

The Romney ad conveniently ignores the context in which those comments were made during the 2008 presidential campaign. The President in fact said:

“Senator McCain’s campaign actually said, and I quote, ‘If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.’ ”

Obama was referencing a quote by a McCain adviser that appeared in the New York Daily News. The spin in the Romney ad deliberately misrepresents the President. Not that a bit of flimflammery bothers Mitt and his team. In a New York Times article titled "The Reinvention of Political Morality" a Romney operative passed off the ad deception as propaganda: "We are in the persuasion business, the propaganda business…. Ads are agitprop…. Ads are about hyperbole, they are about editing."

The shift in Romney's positions on some issues is so stark and self-serving it speaks to a level of political cynicism that is breathtaking. Take his positions on abortion as an example, bearing in mind that in his latest pro-life incarnation he claims he never adopted the term "pro-choice."

"I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country. I have since the time when my Mom took that position when she ran in 1970 as a U.S. Senate candidate. I believe that since Roe v. Wade has been the law for 20 years that we should sustain and support it, and I sustain and support that law and the right of a woman to make that choice."
Senatorial debate (1994)

"I respect and willfully protect a woman's right to choose. That choice is a deeply personal one, and the women of our state should make it based on their beliefs, not mine and not the government's."
GOP acceptance speech (2002)

"I've never called myself pro-choice."
Redstate interview (2006)

He attributed his right-to-choose convictions to a family tragedy. A young relative named Ann Keenan died as a result of a botched abortion. Following that in 1994 Romney told voters he had switched from anti-abortion to pro-choice. It didn't last long. In 2005 when he was looking at a run on the GOP ticket he reversed positions and declared that he was anti-abortion.

Romney has also been falsifying Obama's policies and record. He claims the President wants to create "an entitlement society" in which everyone gets "the same rewards." Obama has never proposed anything of the sort or enacted policies with any such stated objective. Even as "hyperbole" it fails.

None of this stuff is new. In the 2008 campaign Romney was caught out on a few fast ones. There was the story about how he and his dad marched with the late Martin Luther King - here. Even when the story was debunked he persisted in digging deeper.

Other incidents from a few years back raise questions about character, for example the Obama/Osama and dog box incidents - here.

With respect to tall tales, Romney shares a few traits with Joseph Smith, the prophet who helped pave the way for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints aka the Mormons.

On a recent show Rachel Maddow called Romney out on falsehoods - "false about being false" - and provides video evidence to back it up - beneath: