CT Blue

One way to avoid the need to shake your Etch-A-Sketch is to not sketch anything in the first place. Apparently, a sketch free campaign, at least on certain issues, is what Romney has in mind. As he explained to the Weekly Standard, in so many words, if he sketched out his plans, he’d lose. Poor Willard has these occasional moments of near honesty that he simply can’t seem to avoid.

This , of course, is par for the course for Republican candidates. It’s not that Democrats always flesh out their ideas, it’s that Republicans never do, except for the Ron Pauls of the world, who have either no chance or no desire to win. For Republicans, it’s a matter of survival. If they tell people what they intend to do, as Romney implies, people won’t vote for them. They have thus evolved into masters of evasion, adept at promising popular generalities, but avoiding unpopular details. We Americans fervently believe in free lunches, and Republicans are good at promising them. The reality, when Republicans deliver, never quite measures up to the promise.

Witness Paul Ryan, who is delighted to be quite specific about the taxes he’ll cut, but grows evasive about the loopholes he promises to close to make up for the lost revenues. In fact, he intends to close only such loopholes as might be of some benefit to the middle class and the poor, and borrow the rest of the money needed to make up the difference. That wouldn’t go down so well, so like Romney he isn’t going to sketch it out, and he surely isn’t going to etch it.

Paul Krugman says that the media is not fawning over Ryan this time; that they are actually aware that his numbers don’t add up. I hope that’s true, but if so, wouldn’t it make sense for a David Gregory, for instance, to actually pin Ryan down? When he refuses to detail the loopholes, point out the failure and ask him again. When he fails again, do it again. Don’t accept that it’s “fair enough” when a politician refuses to answer a question on which the fate of millions might hinge. Maybe he won’t come back on your show, but the world would be a better place for that. Americans may be all too willing to buy a pig in a poke, but it remains the job of the media to open the poke and look inside.