Mitt Romney’s Invisibility Strategy

 Joe Klein complains that the Republican nominee is being beastly to the press. 

Mitt Romney is clearly a candidate terrified by his own mouth. What other explanation for his campaign’s extreme efforts to prevent reporters from asking him questions? I know that there isn’t much public sympathy for journalistic whining – including my own occasional, stupid laments – about the lack of access. But Romney’s staff has clearly taken this to a new level, preventing reporters from even watching the candidate’s mini-town meeting with middle-class voters at one stop.

Given how grim these events tend to be (and how repetitive life is on the campaign trail) one might think being excluded from Romney’s events a blessing. The surprise is not that reporters are sometimes denied access to these events but that they are so often permitted to attend them. Much – perhaps even most – of the time the candidate derives little benefit from the presence of national reporters on the campaign trail. 

The press aren’t present to report on anything Romney might actually do as President. On the contrary, journalists attend these events hoping that the nominee will say something dumb. That makes “news” you see. And, sure, that’s fair enough but it’s hard to see why the campaign should make it easier for the press to embarrass the candidate. 

Klein demonstrates as much with his snarky pay-off:

You do have to wonder, though, how much skill and confidence Romney will bring to meetings with foreign and Congressional leaders if he can’t figure out how to talk to the press.

Readers who notice that dealing with the press or foreign leaders might be two different skills are one-up on Mr Klein.

Besides, as Klein’s colleague Mike Crowley points out Romney is enjoying a mini0surge in the polls at the very point his campaign disappears from widespread public consciousness. I fancy these things may be connected. 

Familiarity breeds contempt and it does so faster in the era of ceaseless chatter and blather in the 24-hour news-cycle. It’s a rare politician indeed who does not discover that his or her half-life is shorter than was the case for their counterparts in generations past. (Another reason why, all things being equal, incumbency may be less advantageous than it has been in previous political eras.) 

The more voters see of Romney the more reason they have to be disappointed with him. There seems no good reason why he should court that disapproval any earlier in the election campaign than is absolutely necessary. In any case, the post-primary, pre-convention period is traditionally relatively low-key and a time in which the challenger generally benefits from a small victory glow before the final campaign begins. 

Voters will have ample oportunity to study Romney in due course. There’s no need to insist they do so for six months solid. An invisibility strategy makes sense at this point but, as Romney’s people must know, it cannot last forever.  

UPDATE: Jack Shafer is spot-on about all this too. Candidates never like the press and, much of the time, the press don’t much care for the candidates either but most of the press complaints about access and all the rest of it are either bogus or humbug or, often, both.