Mitt Romney is a cautious man and doesn’t want to make any mistakes. He doesn’t want to give his critics in the media and in the Democratic Party any ammunition. That is why he always plays things close to the vest. The problem here is that many times he lacks specifics on certain answers to public policy questions.
Look at what happened this morning in his interview with Bob Schieffer on CBS's “Face The Nation.” He was vague on what he would do regarding immigration policy in the future. While this cautious approach might eliminate many unforced errors, the danger is that a narrative may begin to take shape that Romney is concealing his true agenda and being secretive. You don’t think the media will play along with that storyline?
See the exchange between Romney and Schieffer below.
SCHIEFFER: “[W]ould you repeal [Obama’s immigration] order if you became president?” …
ROMNEY: “This is something Congress has been working on, and I thought we were about to see some proposals brought forward by Senator Marco Rubio and by Democrat senators, but the President jumped in and said I'm going to take this action … [H]e was president for the last three and a half years and did nothing on immigration. Two years he had a Democrat House and Senate, did nothing of a permanent or long-term basis. What I would do, is I’d make sure that by coming into office, I would work with Congress to put in place a long-term solution for the children of those that have come here illegally.” …
SCHIEFFER: “But would you repeal this?” …
ROMNEY: “[M]y anticipation is I’d come into office and say we need to get this done, on a long-term basis, not this kind of stop-gap measure. What the president did, he should have worked on this years ago, if he felt seriously about this he should have taken action when he had a Democrat House and Senate, but he didn’t. He saves these sort of things until four and a half months before the general election.” …
SCHIEFFER: “So he did it for politics.”
ROMNEY: “Well, that's certainly a big part of the equation.” …
SCHIEFFER: “ If the European economy falls apart, the American economy is going to be in big trouble. What should we be doing right now?”
ROMNNEY: “The president’s frankly made it harder for our economy to reboot. I’d strengthen the basis of America’s economic might. … [O]ne is to take advantage of our energy resources.”
SCHIEFFER: “But I mean would that work right now? I mean that’s going to take a while to get that going. I mean I’m talking about what if this whole thing falls in in Europe, what should we be doing here? Should we become involved? What do we do?”
ROMNEY: “Well, we’re not going to send checks to Europe. We’re not going to bail out the European banks. We’re going to be poised here to support our economy, but I’m very much in favor of the fundamental things one does to strengthen the economic footings of a nation and as to what’s going to happen in Europe and what kind of impact that will have here, time will tell. But our banks are on a much stronger basis than they were at the time of the last economic crisis.”
SCHIEFFER: “The Federal Reserve … is going to meet this week to weigh the possibility of a new economic stimulus for our economy. Now you didn’t think much of the last stimulus, what do you think they should do now? Is it time for another?”
ROMNEY: “Well the QE2 as it’s called, which is a monetary stimulus, did not have the desired effect. It was not extraordinarily harmful, but it does put in question the future value of the dollar and it will obviously encourage some inflation down the road. A QE3 would do the same thing. … I surely don’t believe that we should expose our national balance sheet to the vagaries of what’s going to be happening in Europe. Europe is capable of dealing with their banking crisis if they choose to do so. Obviously this is going to depend enormously on Germany. But they and others will have to make that decision but we don’t want to go in and start providing funding to European banks.”
SCHIEFFER: “You were one of the vast majority of Republicans who signed the pledge that was circulated by the leading anti-tax advocate Grover Norquist. No new taxes under any circumstance. And I remember once back during the primaries you were asked if you would agree to one dollar in taxes if you could get ten dollars cut, in spending cuts. And you said at that time, no I wouldn’t even accept that. Do you still feel that way?” …
ROMNEY: “The answer is I do feel that way. Government is big and getting larger and there are those who think well, the answer is just to take a little more from the American people. Just give us a little more.”
Breaking News! This just in: Mitt Romney has emotions and feelings. It’s true. It has been captured on videotape. Watch the campaign’s Father’s Day web video below. Get the Kleenex!
On a serious note, this is exactly the type of move the Romney campaign needs to do more of. Volunteerism and helping people is central to his faith. If they continually show more of that side, it can pay huge dividends.