Romney: 'I know' my positions are unpopular with Hispanics but 'I am not going to be a flip-flopper'

(Reuters) Mitt Romney, responding to prodding from Rupert Murdoch about immigration policy at a private meeting in New York with about 50 elite fundraisers:

Romney said the Hispanic vote is important, noting he has Sen. Marco Rubio on the trail for him and that one of his own sons speaks Spanish, but indicated he is not going to change positions from some of what he said in the primaries.

"I know I took some positions in the primary that are" hard to contend with in a general, Romney said, according to two sources.

"I am not going to be a flip-flopper," he added, according to one guest. He talked more about the various concerns that he has to balance in terms of competing constituencies who have different views ' and noted, two sources said, the precise percentage that Hispanic voters make up in the swing states, a figure that was less than 20 percent.

So:

1. Mitt Romney knows that his march to the far right on immigration policy during the primary hurt him with Hispanic voters
2. He apparently doesn't care about that because he doesn't want to look like a flip-flopper (better to be an ass than a flip-flopper, I guess)
3. But it's all good because Marco Rubio supports him (Exiles for Romney!) and one of his sons speaks Spanish (which gives his family one more way of saying "self-deport")

One other thing struck me about this: Romney is quite clearly his own chief strategist, and is painfully aware of the various political calculations he is making. Probably one of the reasons he's so awkward in public is that he's constantly censoring himself to avoid another one of those "I'm running for office, for Pete's sake" moments. And despite what he said to this group, you know that at some point he's going to try to flip-flop on immigration policy. He can't win unless he does. But with every passing moment, he's making pulling off the flip-flop more difficult.