The Root) -- Mitt Romney has been betting against America. His chances of being elected have hinged upon a weak economy, bad unemployment numbers, disillusionment with the political process and latent resentment of President Obama.

This approach, of course, has been the GOP playbook since Jan. 20, 2009. According to Robert Draper's book Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the House of Representatives, key Republican leaders met on the night of Obama's inauguration to design their grand plan. Incessant ad hominem attacks against Obama by recalcitrant Republicans, and their refusal to aid policy proposals that would offer the president any political advantage, eventually delivered a landslide victory in the 2010 midterms.

Birtherism and a nonstop attack campaign waged against "Obamacare" were key factors, and it seems that Romney has been counting on a continued wave of negativity. Now aided by unbridled super PAC spending, voter-ID laws to disenfranchise minorities and a stalled economic recovery, Romney's campaign hoped that his propensity for remaining vague about policy specifics would go unnoticed amid the louder GOP propaganda machine.

What Romney didn't anticipate was actually answering questions.


Last weekend Romney and his vice presidential candidate, Rep. Paul Ryan, finally ventured away from the safety of Fox News, offering interviews to the mainstream press in which they failed to answer basic questions about their plans for the economy, health care, tax reform or foreign policy. In their failure to do so, the truth behind the proposals they've already made became all the more glaring -- and fodder for fact-checkers.

"We're not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers," Romney pollster Neil Newhouse said at a panel organized by ABC News.