Josh Barro gives Romney's economic plan an Incomplete:
[N]ow more than ever we need bold Republican ideas about getting the economy moving again. Our best hope – and not an entirely implausible one – is that presumptive-nominee Romney has a secret plan for the economy. If he doesn't, we may be in for years' more stagnation.
Yglesias pooh-poohs the notion:
Even if Romney does, personally, have some kind of secret plans the various cross-pressures of party government make it likely that standard-issue GOP thinking as represented by the agenda of the House GOP caucus will be the main thrust of his agenda. That means permanent regressive tax cuts, short-term discretionary spending cuts, substantial relaxation of environmental regulation, and possibly a shoot-the-moon effort to repeal Medicare. Whatever the merits of this may be, none of it is really even calculated to tackle the short-term problems of housing debt, mass unemployment, and excess capacity.
Frum earlier attempted to project moderation and "independent thinking" onto Romney. I have to say I think Matt is right on this. Here's what we know about Romney: he will pander to whomever he needs to at any given moment. If he wins the White House, moreover, he is going to be on an extremely tight and fragile leash vis-a-vis his own party base from the get-go and likely to have a terrible time getting anything vaguely centrist through the Congress (sorry, David). After the last few years, I doubt the Democrats would be rushing to embrace Mitt in any serious way, meaning his total dependence on the furthest right loonies in the House (if the GOP retains it) will define his legislative agenda. And Romney will have to earn huge amounts of political capital in office to get any chance to deviate an iota from the magisterium of the GOP.
The Dish 