The article posted on the CBS News web site, Analysis: Mitt Romney gaining little from secret meetings with voters, talks about a heretofore little known aspect of the Romney campaign.

Mitt Romney has been running a vast focus group for months. He says that almost every day during his campaign he has secretly sat down with three or four families who are being hurt by Obama’s economy to learn what their lives are like.

If Romney actually starts the conversation by asking a question like, “How have you been hurt by the Obama economy?”, then you know he is not actually looking for information.  When a supposed poll asks you a leading question like this, then it is called a push poll.  The push comes from the idea that the poll is really trying to push an idea onto you rather than trying to pull an answer from you.

Be that as it may, if we go along with the premise of the article that the purpose of these interviews is actually to find answers to questions, my response to the article was:

Romney does not seem to give any indication of understanding how the policies of the previous administrations put these people into the financial mess that they are in.

He doesn’t explain how bringing back these same policies is now going to cure the problems that they initially created.

The press does not seem to know how to put these questions to Romney. You would think they would be curious to know the answers. The readers certainly would like to know the answers even if the reporters don’t seem to have an ounce of curiosity.

When interviewing a progressive candidate, the press seems to be quite happy to phrase a “question” of the form “You opposition says [put in your favorite ridiculous accusation], how do you respond to that?”

In talking to Romney, I never hear them ask, “Your opponent says that the exact policies you are promoting are the ones that caused the current economic recession, how do you respond to that?”