The magnitude of the basic deceit that is the Romney/Ryan campaign has grown so large that it presents a problem for the blogging format. Time and again, I am dissuaded from pursuing a topic by the sheer effort it will take to explain it, or by the fact that I have already expended that energy more than once. It must be part of their plan. Here’s Greg Sargent, giving it a go:
Romney has broken with recent precedent — his father included — in refusing to release his tax returns, but he says has paid 13 percent for 10 years. (Just trust me.) Romney has not released the names of his major bundlers, but he won’t be beholden to his donors, as Obama has been. (Just trust me.) Romney vows to eliminate the deficit, and promises that his tax plan will be revenue neutral, even though he won’t say which loopholes and deductions he’d eliminate to pay for deep tax cuts that disproportionately benefit the rich. (Just trust me.) Romney says he intends to eliminate whole agencies of government, but won’t say which ones, except in closed-door meetings with donors, and even then, details are scarce. (All together now: Just trust me.)
And so on, in that vein. Rather than doing a piece this morning that attempts to correct the record, I just want to talk about this strategy of “Just trust me.” On one level, I agree with the strategy. When it comes to something like tax reform, for example, it makes sense to set out some broad principles and leave most of the details for later. This is because you have to work with the Congress you get, not the one you might wish to have. So, details don’t count for much. What the voters need to know is your bottom line and what you are trying to achieve.
But, if you are going to propose a radical change in the tax code, and ask people to trust you about the details, you have to work to earn that trust. And Romney doesn’t come with a lot of built up trust. It’s not a problem for me, but his Mormon religion is something a lot of people don’t trust. His work at Bain Capital is not something a lot of people trust. His destruction of his gubernatorial records didn’t promote trust. The destruction of his Olympic records didn’t promote trust. His refusal to release his tax returns is suspicious, as is his foreign banks accounts. Lying about whether he filed his taxes in Utah or Massachusetts didn’t inspire any trust. And, frankly, that fact that he says about twenty inaccurate things a day is not helping people trust him.
He’s in a terrible position, based on his biography, work history, and record on the campaign to ask anyone to trust him about anything. By refusing to talk about his religion, or his time at Bain Capital, by having destroyed the records at the Olympics and of his time as governor, and by lying about and refusing to release his taxes or talk about specifics in his policy proposals, he’s done about everything he can to make people not trust him.
The Romney strategy is simple: Hammer away at Obama for proposing cuts to Medicare and promise, in vague, aspirational ways, to protect the program for future retirees — but don’t get pulled into a public discussion of the most unpopular parts of the Ryan plan.
As we have gone over (over and over again), this charge that Obama proposed or made cuts to Medicare is a gigantic lie. The cuts are actually cost savings that don’t impact Medicare recipients. Since, one leg of Romney’s strategy is to tell a gigantic lie over and over again, the fact that another leg of his strategy is to earn the trust of the American people seems less than ideal.
