Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) on Sunday said that GOP hopeful Mitt Romney was “smart” not to give voters specifics about how he would govern if elected president of the United States. During an interview on CBS, host Bob Schieffer asked Barbour if it was going to take more for Romney to win than simply saying, “Let’s get rid of Barack Obama.”
“At the end of the day, Mitt Romney also has to give people something to vote for,” Barbour admitted. “I think that is more a matter of timing.”
“I think right now Romney is smart to wait before he starts laying out proposal after proposal, but he ultimately will.”
Politico recently noted that the lack of specifics had “no-policy problem” for the Romney campaign.
“Vague, general or downright evasive policy prescriptions on some of the most important issues facing the country are becoming the rule for Romney,” Politico’s Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns wrote.
And it’s not just Democrats that are calling on the former Massachusetts governor to lay out clear positions on foreign policy, veterans issues, immigration and how his tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans will be funded.
“The Romney strategy the past eight weeks has been, in a small way, shrewd: have the candidate out there talking in a candidate-like manner, but don’t let him say anything so interesting that it will take the cameras off Mr. Obama,” The Wall Street Journal‘s Peggy Noonan wrote. “It’s working, but won’t for long. People want meaning, a higher and declared purpose.”
Barbour also took issue with House Speak John Boehner’s assertion that a lot of voters won’t “fall in love” with Romney.
“I think a lot of people who know Mitt Romney will really, really like him,” Barbour said. “There’s a lot to love about Mitt Romney, but the election still is going to be a referendum on Barack Obama’s policies.”
Watch this video from the CBS’s Face the Nation, broadcast July 8, 2012.
