ABSTRACT
In the 2011-2012 Republican primary debates, Mitt Romney was placed in the awkward position of having to campaign against the national version of a policy he supported as Governor of Massachusetts. The passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) combined with Romney’s frontrunner position in the Republican primary created a complex rhetorical demand that required Romney to simultaneously defend his record while opposing a policy that mirrored the one he created. I argue that Romney used a polysemic argument strategy to simultaneously affi rm the value of his healthcare policy while rejecting the similar policy implemented by President Obama.
