I forgot to mention this before, when I was reviewing the Romney jobs plan. I had a big problem with this paragraph:

One of the greatest problems with the federal bureaucracy is that each incoming presidential administration leaves in place much of what its predecessor constructed. The result is layer upon layer of often unnecessary or inconsistent regulation. Mitt Romney will not allow that practice to continue. On his first day in office, Romney will order all federal agencies to initiate repeal of any regulations issued by the Obama administration that unduly burden the economy or job creation.

While it's common for an incoming president to undo parts of what the previous administration did, this seems like a dangerous promise to me. You can't just delete four or eight years of the prior administration every time the presidency changes hands. The government isn't a speedboat, it's a cruise ship. You don't make sharp turns, you guide it in a desired direction. Calling a do-over every four, eight, twelve, or hell, even sixteen years would result in a bipolar government, and the stresses on the law could get messy.

Romney, here, is promising to bring things back to 2008 and do it "right," this time, but it's not 2008. It's 2011, and this kind of regressive thinking is a risky gambit. Birthers thought that if they could prove President Obama was born in Kenya, they'd be able to undo all of his work because it was done by an illegal president. They were wrong. If Romney starts down this path of treating every idea Obama ever had as toxic for the American people, he could be in danger of scaring off independent voters with his excessive partisanship. And regardless of votes, this promise sets a dangerous precedent.