ultimately taking a position rejected by more than three-fifths of Ohioans.
As the Obama campaign points out, Romney did his best to avoid taking a position, but his right-wing base forced him to state his unqualified support for the measure ... and more than three-fifths of Ohioans rejected his view.
The episode not only underscored Romney's unprincipled core, but he ended up taking the wrong position. Flip-flopping is one thing, but flip-flopping to the wrong side is lethal.
But it wasn't just SB5, that was a problem for Romney yesterday. There was also Ballot Issue #2, a health care measure designed to give Ohioans a chance to reject the individual mandate in their state. Two-thirds of voters supported the measure, but while it would be easy to read that as a rebuke of President Obama's health care plan, it's also a rebuke of Mitt Romney's health care plan. If Republicans do end up nominating him, Romney won't be able to capitalize on it—after all, he's the guy who predicted the entire nation would take "mandate approach" to health care reform, and he did so long before President Obama's health care plan became law.
The RNC is trying turn what happened in Ohio into an attack on President Obama, but as Mark Murray points out, it's an attack that can boomerang against the GOP establishment's favored candidate. After all, he supports the individual mandate every bit as much as President Obama. As Mitt Romney said in 2007: "It's a good model for other states ... it's a terrific idea."