ROMNEY – HEY, NO PROBLEM – AT 10:25 A.M. ET:  Mitt Romney will appear on "60 Minutes" tomorrow night, itself a mistake, I think.  He will deny that his campaign faces any serious problems:

(CBS News) Mitt Romney says his campaign for president doesn't need a turnaround and that he's keeping up with President Obama in the polls, despite criticism generated by a recently revealed tape of him referring to the 47 percent of Americans who don't pay taxes. The Republican presidential candidate talked with Scott Pelley in a 60 Minutes interview to be broadcast Sunday, Sept. 23 at 7:30 p.m. ET and 7:00 p.m. PT.

Pelley's interview with Romney is part of a 60 Minutes focus on the 2012 presidential campaign. President Obama will also appear on 60 Minutes Sunday in a separate interview with Steve Kroft.

I look forward to seeing the difference in the interviews.  I don't know why Romney does these programs.  They're not his strong point, just as Reagan realized he wasn't at his best when answering the questions of a hostile press.  So he often didn't answer them. 

A transcript of the excerpt follows:

Scott Pelley: You are slipping in the polls at this moment. A lot of Republicans are concerned about this campaign. You bill yourself as a turnaround artist. How are you going to turn this campaign around?

Mitt Romney: Well, actually, we're tied in the polls. We're all within the margin of error. We bounce around -- week to week-- day to day. There are some days we're up. There are some days we're down. We go forward with my message, that this is a time to reinvigorate the American economy, not by expanding government and raising taxes on people, but instead by making sure government encourages entrepreneurship and innovation and gets the private sector hiring again.

Scott Pelley: Governor, I appreciate your message very much. But that wasn't precisely the question. You're the CEO of this campaign. A lot of Republicans would like to know, a lot of your donors would like to know, how do you turn this thing around? You've got a little more than six weeks. What do you do?

Mitt Romney: Well, it doesn't need a turnaround. We've got a campaign which is tied with an incumbent president to the United States.

That's maddening.  The questions are legitimate, but Romney just lacks that touch, that ability to watch the ball come in and hit it out of the park.  I know that some readers disagree – I get dissenting e-mails all the time, and they are welcome – but I do think there is a problem.  Ironically, Romney conceded as much.  "We bounce around," he said.  Trouble is, that's all he's been doing.  Bouncing around.  He needs a breakthrough.  In the face of a failed economy, he should be ahead, and he's not.

Yes, yes, I know, Karl Rove and Dick Morris believe Romney is actually doing well.  I hope they're right and that my doubts are exaggerated.  But I'd like to see the numbers change.  All focus is now being put on the upcoming debates.  Romney is a reasonable debater, but Obama is no slouch with words, and he will say anything, true or not.  He is not the gentleman that Romney is.  And the press will spin any debate as either an Obama victory or a tie.  Unless Obama admits that he's an Indonesian citizen evading arrest on a sex molestation charge, he'll be propped up by the media.  Even those things might not matter too much "in a multicultural world."  We must understand diversity.

I want to see Romney turn it on, and flood the airwaves with ads.  He's built up an impressive war chest.  Maybe he's waiting for October for the major invasion.  We'll be behind him, but expecting him to perform.

September 22, 2012