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Ask and it shall be given, Mitt Romney’s campaign seems to be saying today to critics Left and Right. Need a positive campaign message? Want an agenda? Well, here you are, per Byron York:
[O]n Thursday, the campaign rolled out “Mitt Romney’s Plan for a Stronger Middle Class,” which boiled down nearly every domestic policy proposal Romney has made to just five points: energy independence, education, trade reform, deficit cutting and a plan to “champion small business.”
And on Thursday afternoon, there was Romney, addressing supporters in Golden, Colo., in front of a giant banner that said ROMNEY PLAN. In his remarks, Romney criticized Obama; nothing wrong with that. But he laid out his larger purpose at the very beginning. “Today, I come to talk about making things better,” Romney said, laying out his plan. “If we do those five things, those simple five things … you’re going to see this economy come roaring back.”
“This is the path to more jobs and more take-home pay and a brighter future for you and your kids,” Romney added. “And I know that because I’ve seen it.”
Romney was clear, sharp and focused. If he stays that way, he’ll likely quiet some of his GOP critics, at least for a while.
Well, that’s nice, and clearly more substantive than just touting his own success and rugged good looks as a sufficient agenda. But Lord a-mercy, this five-point plan raises a few follow-up questions, eh? I mean, would Barack Obama dispute any of these five goals? I don’t think so.
The funny thing about this “five-point plan” is that it’s vastly less specific than what you might call his “one-point plan:” the Ryan Budget, which shows in detail how Romney and a Republican Congress would go about achieving those five goals. Until Romney is willing to talk about that, then he can call his vague talking points a PLAN all he wants, but it’s about as accurate as taking photos of a city from an airplane window at 40,000 feet, and proclaiming it all neat and pretty.
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Ron Byers on August 03, 2012 5:28 PM:
It isn't a plan so much as 5 focus grouped themes. "A chicken in every pot" is more specific.
Now if the press did its job and forced him to flesh out his 5 points we might learn something.
Does it strike you as odd that he released this plan on a Friday in the middle of the Olympics. Does he want to slip it by or something?
emjayay on August 03, 2012 5:29 PM:
And by "energy independence" he of course means "drill baby drill", othwise known as ending human civilization as we know it even faster than it's already going to happen by putting even more carbon in the atmosphere.
RaflW on August 03, 2012 5:35 PM:
The Washington Examiner being a useless fishwrap, I'm not too persuaded by Mr. York ... or by Mitt's five platitudes of perfidy.
(And yes, I mean perfidy, though perfidity would also apply)
c u n d gulag on August 03, 2012 5:36 PM:
Nothing new here.
Mitt's "Five Point Plan" is that while 4+ people out of five pay for the plan, the other 1 makes the money!"
SEE?
SIMPLE!!!
Anonymous on August 03, 2012 5:37 PM:
Ron Byers: Yes, he wants to slip it by, so that later he can say "well, I've outlined my five point plan, been talking about it for weeks!"
gus on August 03, 2012 6:02 PM:
Keep in mind that a five point plan, any easily memorizable list of bullet points will allow supporters to rattle off what Romney “Believes In” even they they have no clue whatsoever.
I know plenty of people who wanted another Republican. Personally, I would have taken any of them because they are all buffoons. But, none could really dampen enthusiasm like Romney can.
So he needs simple so that people can easily and quickly say something he is “for" while saying what Obama “is against”. The problem for Mitt is the idiot still needs to explain himself and address other issues that he’s been lucky enough to avoid or which he is constantly avoiding.
So this bullet points are most likely for support justification for people whose minds are already made up. I’d say it would be for low info voters, too. But, be honest, some of them who would vote GOP don’t need reasons to vote against Obama. They will just vote against Obama and not think twice about saying so.
Romney....he just is plan B for most people. Yup. Plan B.
Good ol’ Plan B.
How I hate him so.
bobbo on August 03, 2012 6:10 PM:
And here's Jackie to tell us how to rid the world of all known diseases!
Hello Jackie!
Hello! Well, first, become a doctor and find a marvelous cure for something, then make sure to tell everybody all about it, and there will never be any diseases, anymore!
Thanks, Jackie, that was great!
exlibra on August 03, 2012 6:40 PM:
“This is the path to more jobs and more take-home pay and a brighter future for you and your kids,” Romney added. “And I know that because I’ve seen it.”
Isn't that what Joseph Smith said, too?
Doug on August 03, 2012 6:54 PM:
First the important stuff - bobbo, you really should cite the source for that, even though many (most?) here will recognize the Python touch.
As for Willard, what's he got against Mom and apple pie? He didn't mention babies, either! Or rainbows! Everybody likes rainbows!
Dear FSM, is the Romney campaign trying to demonstrate its' complete grasp of how NOT to win? He only beat his primary opponents by outspending them 10- or 20-1 and even with the "independent" superPacs, can't count on that advantage from here on in. His "base", quite sensibly, doesn't trust him. They've seen him take one side while going after a particular opponent, then immediately swerve 180 degrees when going after his next opponent. All the while saying he HASN'T done exactly what he has. What better way to build trust between a candidate and his supporters?
Now he trots out these Luntz-generated "bullet points"? Platitudes that, in the business world, would get anyone delivering them fired immediately for trying to palm them off instead of having an actual, you know, PLAN.
Using Occam's Razor, however, I've come to the conclusion that, just as with his tax returns, Romney and his campaign have decided that it's better to talk about those data-free talking points than the Ryan plan.
Becaue if Romney's forced to talk about the Ryan budget, I'm not sure he'll even carry his base...
Joe Friday on August 03, 2012 7:19 PM:
This is the same pile of horseshit we got from Chimpy Bush in 2000, that his very election to office and the enactment of his agenda would fix all our problems. Of course what we got instead was massive federal deficits & debt, two recessions, an economic depression, and tens of millions of lost jobs.
T2 on August 03, 2012 7:32 PM:
They have no specifics, because the specifics would lose the election for them.
Anonymous on August 03, 2012 7:33 PM:
my guess in details based on his and republicans' previous comments:
1 energy independence: Get rid of greenhouse emission and maybe mercury EPA standards. Drill federal lands. Keystone pipeline. Probably keep Obama's diesel standards for cars and solar-wind investments.
2 education: school vouchers, more charter schools, less unionized teachers.
keep Obama's state waiver for NCLB. halt on student loan interests.
(cut or possibly eliminate department of education)
3 trade reform: same as obama. TPP. (however he said that he will declare china as currency manipulator, so that's strange...) Potentially territorial tax elimination.
4 deficit cutting: water-down version of Paul Ryan plan without touching social security.
5 a plan to “champion small business" : probably just means that he will weaken dodd-frank, stop enforcing existing labor and finance laws. repeal volker rule.
Small business tax credits for hiring and health care coverage as Obama proposed.
probably Infrastructure investment bank. reduce corporate tax rate to 25%.
Yay! they agree on many issues!!
i think it's all about who gets credits!
Anonymous on August 03, 2012 7:35 PM:
oops, i meant creating territorial tax, meaning getting rid of overseas US tax.
lou on August 04, 2012 11:28 AM:
All of his points involve long term commitment and investment, private and PUBLIC. We have already been doing most of this stuff for a long time. There is no freaking way the economy is going to come roaring back. There simply are no magic bullets to generate a sustainable level of high global growth. Romney can resurrect some kind of fiscal or financial balloon to stimulate some short term growth only to have negative feedbacks like rapidly rising petroleum prices knock it back down.
Romney has a lot of almost universally accepted delusions like our imperative for growth to work in his favor. Unfortunately our system selects for such a charlatan.