Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principal

You can only know where Mitt Romney's current political position is at any given moment, or the vector of him changing that position when asked by a reporter, but you can never know both his position and his direction at the same time.

When Mitt Romney left office as Massachusetts governor, his aides removed all emails from a server computer in the governor's office, and purchased and carted off hard drives from 17 state-owned personal computers, according to a current state official.

But a small cache of emails survived, including some that have never publicly surfaced surrounding Mr. Romney's efforts to pass his now-controversial health-care law. The emails show the Republican governor was closely engaged in negotiating details of the bill, working with top Democratic state leaders and drafting early copies of opinion articles backing it.

Mr. Romney and his aides, meanwhile, strongly defended the so-called individual mandate, a requirement that everyone in Massachusetts have or buy heath insurance. And they privately discussed ideas that might be anathema to today's GOP—including publicly shaming companies that didn't provide enough health insurance to employees.

Mr. Romney signed the bill April 12, 2006, and that night sent an email thanking a top aide, saying the law would help "hundreds of thousands of people…have healthier and happier lives."

At this point Mittens is praying that the Supreme Court has to completely strike down the Affordable Care Act, because if they don't, he's toast.   And yes, I'm well aware of the fact the article's from Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal and that this is a fire break being set against a much larger wildfire in the wake of the SCOTUS decision on the ACA.

If all this came to light after the SCOTUS decision on the ACA, Romney loses no matter what he does.  If it comes out now, before the decision, then the ruling itself could obliterate this down the memory hole (but only if the law is totally vacated.)  If the law remains without the mandate, it's going to be ugly for both President Obama and Mitt Romney.  If the law remains untouched, same thing.  But if the law is struck down, both sides have to come up with a replacement plan, and that differentiation is the only thing saving Mitt from millions of Republicans yelling RINO and staying home in November.

So yes, this is coming out on purpose...so it can be turned into Mitt's latest etch-a-sketch later.