Dick Morris reinvents himself (again)

Dick Morris has always been something of a political chameleon.

Before his days as a conservative commentator on Fox News, Morris was Bill Clinton's chief strategist. And before that, he was a Republican strategist. Now, after embarrassingly inaccurate predictions of a Romney landslide in 2012, Morris is looking to reinvent himself once again.

National Review reports that Morris -- who has authored books such as Here Come the Black Helicopters! and Revolt! -- says that "he's now fighting to do for the Republican party what he did for the Democrats during the Clinton years -- moderate it."

If Republicans ever want to win, they’ll have to adapt to America’s changing electorate and recalibrate their message to draw in these demographics, he believes, and he wants to show the way: “Now I’m kind of a man with a mission.”

“I showed Democrats how to move center,” he says of the Clinton years. “Now, I want to help do the same thing with the Republican party. . . . I’ve got a pretty good track record of getting presidents and senators and governors elected. And I think that gives me credibility to talk to my fellow Republicans.”

How's that for political spin?

Meanwhile, New York Magazine's Jonathan Chalt offers a vastly different take on Morris' new brand.  He notes that Morris' newfound moderation should serve him well as he tries to make a new name for himself over at CNN:

 It’s probably a better way to get airtime on CNN. It’s also a logical persona for a huckster who is quickly running short on them. Morris burst onto the national scene as a grotesquely amoral centrist consultant to the Clinton administration in the nineties, before leaving in disgrace and returning as a raving Republican lunatic bilking the conservative faithful. The new Morris has a chance to present himself, perhaps, as a David Gergen–esque Beltway hand — a chastened political operative longing for the return of good old-fashioned common sense and comity between the two parties. No more black helicopters but, perhaps, gray ones.