One of the key takeaways of Mitt Romney's and Paul Ryan's largely unsuccessful appearances on the Sunday shows was obvious: there's growing impatience over the Republicans' refusal to discuss policy details.
As it turns out, if Romney and Ryan won't fill in the gaps of their own agenda, the Obama campaign will happily do it for them.
In this new spot, set to air in Iowa, Nevada, Ohio, and Virginia, the voiceover tells viewers, "Mitt Romney, he won't reveal what's in his taxes and he won't tell you what he'd do to yours. To pay for huge, new tax breaks for millionaires like him, Romney would have to raise taxes on the middle class. Two thousand dollars for a family with children says a non-partisan report. You could lose the deduction for your home mortgage, college tuition, health care. How much would you pay? Romney just won't say."
The larger issue goes well beyond one new ad. As Paul Waldman explained yesterday, Mitt Romney has arrived at the moment at which "his unwillingness to reveal exactly what he wants to do in a variety of policy areas is becoming a story in its own right. "
Indeed, after Romney and Ryan struggled to even dodge questions about specifics on Sunday, the questions have intensified. Politico noted yesterday that in the span of 24 hours, Romney/Ryan took heat for vague promises from Rupert Murdoch, the Wall Street Journal editorial page, The Weekly Standard, former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), conservative talk radio host Laura Ingraham, prominent GOP strategists, and others.
And that's just from the conservative wing of the GOP. Waldman noted similar pieces from the L.A. Times, NPR, TPM, and Salon.
The campaign seems to be well aware of the problem, but recently said they simply can't provide voters with specific policy details -- to do so would be politically "suicidal."
The funny thing about this? They're right.
Paul Krugman had a good item on this yesterday.
...I've spoken to journalists who are sure that Romney will be forced to say more before Election Day. No he won't. He might lose for lack of detail, but no detail will be provided, for a very simple reason: his proposals don't add up. He literally can't do what he says he would do, namely cut tax rates on the rich without raising the tax burden on the middle class or making the deficit surge; nor can he propose spending cuts as large as he claims without cutting deeply into programs people depend on.
Another way of saying this, of course, is that his alleged budget plan is actually a fraud.
That's true, but we can go further. Romney won't go into detail on his budget plan because his numbers don't add up, and the more specifics he offers, the more obvious this becomes.
But let's not forget that Romney also can't offer voters policy details on issues like health care because the American mainstream would be repulsed by the specifics.
We're left with a candidate who could tell voters about his budget plan, his intentions for undocumented immigrants already living in the United States, his health care agenda after he destroys the Affordable Care Act, and his policy for U.S. troops in Afghanistan, but he chooses not to -- in part because Romney's policies don't make a lot of sense and in part because he's quite certain he'd lose if Americans learned the whole truth.
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JMJ - how the heck do they sleep at night. Romney and Ryan are not stupid; they are full aware of the wool they are trying to pull over our collective eyes!
It must be really hard to co-ordinate all of the lies that they have out there; they must use a lie checker, instead of a fact checker......
The longer he holds out, the easier it is for the soft reporters to ask questions about his hidden policies...
At that point, we wouldn't need a Murrow or Brokaw, we could have Chris Wallace or Sean Hannity ask these same EASY questions - AND STILL NOT GET AN ANSWER. And that will become the story. Hannity can try to Hannitize the situation, but if Romney refuses to answer ANYONE, even the Hannitard can't help him...
NOTE - Wallace and Hannity will not follow up the non-answer with another question on the issue like Murrow or Brokaw or any other respectable journalist would... but that is not the point - the non-answer will be the story until he actually gives an answer (which he has made the calculation that he will never do)
Please don't mention Hannity in the same breath as Murrow.......
Romney has given control of his "Etch a Sketch" to the Democrats. and THAT, my friends, is "politically "suicidal."
The
EmperorGovernor has no clothes!Well, there are two other options for withholding details: one, is that the offered plan is rhetorical -- it doesn't exist; that the plan, as it were, is a model idea, but unformed, and revealing details thus impossible. It is possible, in this context, that his team is still trying to figure out what Mitt is going to be on Inauguration Day.
The other is that the plan exists, but he's trying to sell an idea without it, using it as bait for election: "I have a plan, but if you want to see this great hope for our nation, you'll have to elect me." This, then, is the business side of things: He's trying to negotiate his election.
Why does Romney lie? Because he has to.
Why does Romney not tell the public his plans? Why the lack of transparency? Because he has to.
It's that simple.
The questions for any voter to ask themselves, whether they think the election is a referendum on Obama's record or a choice between competing futures is:
1) Referendum: if Obama's record is so bad, why must Team Romney base it's campaign on manufactured lies, and hide the obstruction from Republicans during the last four years?
2) Choice: if Romney's plans for the future are so good, why must Team Romney hide from the nation what they are?
It's really this simple. There are ZERO good, plausible reasons to vote for Romney. It's that simple.
LOL
Ryan has a plan! to do most of his campaigning in Wisconsin, and not for VP.
be nice to see a double lost for him. be good for WI and the country.
It was funny to see that Lyin' Ryan is putting two million into his OWN congressional campaign, even though he is running for Veep! TRMS may need to break that story, since it is obvious that he is banking on being a rep. and not a Veep.....
Romney's tax plan will hit middle class?
Middle class need good paying JOBS to pay those taxes.
Agreed. Jobs are the key to speeding up the sluggish economy, and it appears the only thing Republicans can come up with is more tax cuts for the 'job creators.' That's, by definition, insane. (insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.)
Business is sitting on literally trillions of dollars, but the huge expansion and growth in job numbers has yet to materialize. Could it be because of a lack of demand?
Lack of demand, and the corporate/republican party who are deliberately withholding any and all support for the working folks because of the Black Guy in the White House...period. Wall Street as turned against him, the unions are looking askance...and we the people are standing there with a foul mortgage, under paying job (if ya got one) and still sacrificing our men and women in combat, all thanks to the obstruction of the GOP/corporate/Koch brothers........................
Where is the loyalty to our country from these so-called American corporations. Maybe it is time to revoke corporate charters and break em up. It is really a National Security Issue...no one in the media has ever taken the time to look into this. Maybe they will when sequestration happens...
It seems that it appears that Mitt just MIGHT have secret plans that he's not ready to reveal until elected (think Nixon's 'Secret Plan to end the war in Vietnam'). He's right: to discuss these secret plans would be politically suicidal. But, let's just postulate for a moment that the Ryan-Romney ticket's secret plans aren't concrete, haven't been thought through thoroughly, really don't exist, save for the already-ridiculed ramblings about tax cuts, repealing Obamacare, and the other air-headed campaign rhetoric that we've seen. Consider this: their 'plan' isn't there, and if it were, it would be the same culture wars nonsense as the current GOTeaP reactionary conservativism has become. It IS politically suicidal, and it's non-existent. And it's non-electable if it's made public prior to the election. For the Ryan-Romneyites, the only real goal is to 'repeal and replace' the Black President. Their 'plan' is the same old stuff, couched in mindless, magical machinations of the mouth.
Here is the angle that will Destroy Romney/Ryan. Ask all your question of him, in a way that will require him to put on his Management Consulting hat, you know the one hat of his thats really comfy for him. Yeah, then get him to answer all the questions with that hat on, with that head on, with that vocabulary. The Whole MBA, Management Consulting speak, (that has never, will never show compassion, empathy, etc) is so alien and reeks of BS, that everyone, even his base, will be so turned off......think about it. I work with these robots all day, i know i'm right.
Mitt will attempt to use Libya and Egypt to avoid dealing with his lack of a credible plan of governance.
I just love Romney's defense, don't you? That releasing their taxes will give "the opposition more ammunition to attack us." I'm paraphrasing, I don't know the exact quote. But that just makes me think...."ammunition? So what the heck is IN them?" Must be some pretty dicey stuff. And if any tax returns are fodder for attacks, why is there nothing in Barack Obama's tax returns that Romney is attacking? It's a ridiculous argument that no one has challenged him on.
Can we call this, 'Willard Romney, international man of stupidity?' People don't like when you are intentionally hiding things.............
I have to wonder how much of overall party strategy is at play here as well. As Krugman points out, Romney might lose the election for lack of specifics, but we also have to recognize that the /Republicans/ can't afford to have him release the details either. The affect of his policies that just don't add up could be extremely disadvantageous for down-ticket Republicans. Either they sign on to policies that can easily be attacked and challenged by Dems or they split with the candidates position and give more ammo to the Dems that Romney's policies don't even have the backing of his own party. There's more to lose than just the White House if Romney gets specific.
romney/ryan won't cut defense.... Social programs aren't just going to get slashed,, or taxes on the middle class aren't just going to go up......