“Unlike President Obama, you don’t have to wait until after the election to find out what I believe in — or what my plans are.” — Mitt Romney’s biggest lie so far

Mitt Romney says he wants to talk about issues but he refuses to talk about the following:

1. his tax returns (and accounts in Bermuda, the Caymans, and Switzerland)
2. his religion (which is now another excuse for not releasing tax returns)
3. Bain Capital
4. 2002 Olympics
5. his Governorship of Massachusetts (and the wiped computers)
6. his energy policy
7. which tax deductions he’d eliminate
8. Medicare benefits and how repealing ACA would impact them
9. his big campaign donors
10. and… the newest off-limits topics: abortion and Todd Akin

Romney is constantly attempting to change the conversation from Bain or his tax returns (or anything else he doesn’t want to talk about) with “issues,” as in, “we need to talk about the real issues!”  But paraphrasing Romney’s own campaign advisers, who revealed their strategy recently: details and specifics are for losers. So how exactly can you debate issues without specifics or details?

You don’t. You can’t. It’s obvious the Romney campaign isn’t trying to sway voters with Mitt’s ideas or plans — or even with Mitt himself as a “person.” They’re running a ‘just trust me’ campaign, as Greg Sargent explains:

Romney advisers are explicitly confirming that all of this is part of a grand strategy to only signal general direction to the American people. It’s a guiding idea that specifics are a political peril to be avoided. The campaign thinks sharing details about what he’d actually do as president would be politically suicidal. As Steve Benen asks: “what does it say about the merit of Romney’s policy agenda if voters are likely to recoil if they heard the whole truth?” And this is coming after the campaign touted the selection of Paul Ryan as proof that the GOP ticket is deeply serious about policy and committed to making the tough decisions Democrats won’t.

Just trust Mitt Romney — you’ll find out why after he wins the election. Really.