Where Is Romney's Actual Policy?

You may have noticed that when it comes to policy, Romney is rather vague. While the style over substance charge is generally directed at the president (whose emotive speeches captured voters' collective enthusiasm in 2008), it's probably Romney who should be getting the flack. With regard to the lack of any concrete details on economic policy in particular, the gap can be summarised succinctly: Obama has proposed policies — real policies. Romney hasn't. Ezra Klein on the massive 'policy gap' between the two:

You might say that this is the natural result of an incumbent running against a challenger. Obama, by virtue of being president, has to develop detailed policies, and he oversees a massive bureaucracy able to help him get specific. Romney, by virtue of his not yet having Obama’s job, does not.

But in 2008, John McCain ran on a far more detailed policy platform than Romney. To name just one example, like Romney, McCain promised to end the tax code’s discrimination against health insurance bought by individuals. But he told us how he would do it: by taxing employer-based insurance and using the savings to give families a $5,000 tax credit to put toward buying health insurance. Nor has Romney released anything that matches “Renewing America’s Purpose,” the 457-page policy book that George W. Bush released during the 2000 election. Romney’s vagueness is unique among modern presidential campaigns.

He recently elaborated on the disparity, saying that it isn't Romney's personality that's to blame for the lack of specificity:

It’s not Romney’s personality. Romney is, by all accounts, a detail-oriented policy wonk. This is, in fact, the whole argument for Romney: He may not be able to feel your pain, but he can balance your budget. Most everyone who has ever worked with or for him comments on his vast appetite for data and his pragmatic approach to governing. Which leads to a possible explanation for the policy gap: Where Bush and McCain and Obama had to release specific policy proposals to answer concerns that they were insufficiently informed on the details of policy, Romney is using his reputation for technocratic diligence as an excuse for refusing to release specific policy proposals.