Doesn’t “deflects” imply that his ploy to throw off the people who criticize his flip-flopping worked?
Because if it does, it didn’t (work).
I understand what you’re saying.. may just be a case of an editor doing a little wordplay..
as an fyi, I combined the teaser headline and put it in parens behind the actual article title. The teaser read ‘Romney deflects flip-flopping charges’