Mitt Romney Declines to Set His Hair on Fire in Order to Get Voter Support

Mitt Romney knows that's it's "very easy to excite the base with incendiary comments," and while some of his GOP rivals—not that anyone in particular comes to mind—might be willing to "say really outrageous things" in order to pander to the base, Romney isn't that kind of candidate. He has standards. "I'm not willing to light my hair on fire to try and get support," he said in Michigan this morning. Via the cable-news capturers at TPM:

If he won't set his hair on fair, then what will he do? Well, he'll declare his intention to pursue large federal spending cuts, but won't say which programs he'll slash to meet his goals. He'll say he plans to reduce tax rates by cutting loopholes from the tax codes, but won't say which ones. He'll use military procurement process as an example of government's inherent waste and inefficient spending, and then argue that we should set a minimum floor on defense spending as percentage of the total economy. He'll describe Medicare as a burden on the budget that's on the path to bankruptcy, and then vow to reverse Obama's Medicare cuts. So it's true enough, I suppose. Romney doesn't pander to the base by saying really outrageous things. He panders to the base more straightforwardly, by telling them exactly what they want to hear.