"Mitt Romney: Vaguest presidential candidate ever?" The Week

[applegrove]

Mitt Romney: Vaguest presidential candidate ever?

The Week

http://theweek.com/article/index/229961/mitt-romney-vaguest-presidential-candidate-ever

"SNIP...........................................

Mitt Romney's campaign has been remarkably consistent with its core message: The GOP candidate is better equipped than President Obama to fix the economy. Romney is tapping into frustration with the president by presenting himself as the anti-Obama, but even some Republicans are starting to express frustration with the vagueness of the former Massachusetts governor's policy stances. From his "no-details" immigration policy to his bare-bones tax plan, Romney has declined to get specific on many of the most pressing issues of the campaign. Why won't Romney give voters more details on what he'll do if he makes it to the White House?

He's being remarkably vague to avoid being attacked: Presidents have clear records, so they're always "more specific than their challengers, says John Dickerson at Slate, but even Republicans are getting fed up with Romney's "thin or nonexistent" answers to questions on everything from tax reform to immigration. Romney "won't give details" so that Obama can't attack his policies. That's fine for now, but before November he'll have to give voters specifics so they can "evaluate him as a possible president."

He can't be specific because his policies aren't realistic: There's an obvious reason for Romney's vagueness, says Scott Lehigh in The Boston Globe. "His numbers simply don't add up." He's promising to reduce spending to 20 percent of gross domestic product, but his cuts to Amtrak subsidies and Planned Parenthood are "just a drop in the bucket." And he favors $6 trillion more in tax cuts than Obama, while asserting he'll balance the budget. Every detail he offers makes it more plain that "he's trying to defy fiscal gravity."

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Romney is trying to keep the focus on Obama: Romney isn't being evasive, he's just "sticking for the time being with what's known as his 'safe' strategy," says Fred Barnes at The Wall Street Journal. He's trying not to say or do anything to distract attention from his "relentless focus on Obama and his record, particularly the weak economic recovery and the absence of strong leadership." There will be plenty of time for him to go "bold" with a conservative reform agenda in the final push between the convention and election day.

..............................................SNIP"

[Flatpicker]

1. Old, but I like it

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/opinion/sunday/a-quantum-theory-of-mitt-romney.html?_r=1

[cindyperry2010]

2. uh huh

the debates should be a grand time of obfuscation and contortions and non answers on his part

[Life Long Dem]

3. He knows his policies are not realistic

And he knows he wouldn't get any votes if people knew this. Which is why he won't answer any questions.

[applegrove]

4. That is how Stephen Harper won the federal election in Canada. And these conservatives use the same

experts. Harper repeated "Canada's strong, stable government" again and again and didn't go into detail. He won.

[left on green only]

5. I was just thinking today that Romney's

statement in reaction to the supreme's upholding of the Presidents health care plan, IE: that he will repeal it upon moments of his winning the election, is the first time that he has really announced his position on any major topic. I hope the Dems hold him to it, because I believe it was the political equivalent to suicide. It is hard for me to now imagine anyone who is for Obama Care to be voting for the R man come next November. And, as I understand it, the overwhelming majority of Americans are for Obama care. So, if all of that holds true, then Romney just threw away his chances of ever winning the election in November....That is, unless he can convince our intellectually challenged electorate to vote against their own self interest. Wait!

[Rosanna Lopez]

6. Majority appear to oppose, but . . .

The majority of Americans are actually against the health care bill, although how that breaks down is complicated because some of that is from people who feel it didn't go far enough and would have like full universal medical care (I'm one of those).

[yellowcanine]

7. Fred Barnes thinks Romney will get bolder after the convention........

Apparently he has forgotten the "etch a sketch" fiasco.

And historical reality. Presidential candidates don't get bolder after the convention.