Political panel: Lacking definition

>>> mitt romney says he's going to give americans more depth on his economic plans as the campaign continues. but, folks, it's late july and the millions of americans searching for solutions, stagnant job numbers, will they be satisfied with broad strokes? perry bacon, msnbc contribute where political editor for thegrio.com. ruth marcus , "the washington post " writing and republican pollster, steve lombardo, welcome all. steve, this criticism has come as much from republicans as it's come from the obama campaign and that is this issue of details. and romney himself admitted that he hasn't put out a lot of details in his interview with larry kudlow . i'm going to put up an element he talked about a five-point directive that he would, to jump start the economy, talks about energy resources , open up trade, convince the world u.s. is on track for a balanced budget , training programs for adults, better schools for kids, restore economic freedom . that's not a plan? that's a philosophy, that's a hope, but it's not a detailed plan. he says he'll put out more later. is there time?

>> i think there's plenty of time. the problem for romney is not a five-point plan it's telling american voters he has a plan and i think that's what he has to do. it has to be the ability to tell people and voters that they're convinced that he has an idea of where to take the economy moving forward, that the president doesn't have that, and he does. five, ten, 15 points doesn't matter.

>> but you can make the case, fine you don't like the president's way, but i mean, when does he have to come out with something?

>> we had 59 points, i believe, the last time around.

>> go back and forth on the 59-point thing. he's a power point kind of guy.

>> this is siris of bumper stickers. he has enough cars to put them all on.

>> oh wow.

>> i know, it was a little mean. but these are aspirational ideas and the -- first of all, they're not fleshed out in any way, convince the world america can get the fiscal situation under control. well, okay, exactly how? and, number two, the linkage of that to if we had done this, the economy would be in a more resur again state? not so clear.

>> perry, isn't this par of the political strategy that he doesn't want to put out too many details because you don't -- they don't want to take the focus off of president obama , they want to make him defend everything and they want to have -- they don't want to keep -- put the focus on them at all?

>> romney 's said in the primary he's for the paul ryan plan.

>> right.

>> the entitlements --

>> but with changes. he doesn't say what changes.

>> he wants to all about obama . they are talking about details, not what they're trying to do on foreign policy or domestic policy .

>> is that -- is that the plan here?

>> it doesn't have to be the plan. this election is all about obama . it is a referendum on the president --

>> but you can't win the next phase of the argument if you don't put out your own plan.

>> absolute le. he has to tell people where he wants to go and how he's going to do it. it has to be a directional thing and that's actually what i think the obama team worries about.

>> vfw , the vfw speech today another place where he's supposed to put a little meat on the bones on the foreign poll significance vision. one was about sort of american exceptionalism , and the second was a hit on the president about leaks. ruth, it struck me as sort of it seeped small for a vfw audience. it's good for the base, and i know the base gets fired up on this story, but it doesn't seem to be about a national security issue.

>> it doesn't seem to be about a vision. the president has launched investigation into leaks. we can argue about whether we think they are authorized or allowed in some way, or not. but it is, as you say, not about some of the serious questions facing the country going forward on foreign policy . and i just think this question of, well, you have to sort of say the direction without giving the actual twists and turns of make a right here and a left there, this is how we're going to get there. voters are going to get fed up with that, i think from both sides.

>> that's the question when we come back. i want to talk about an interesting back and forth that orrin hatch and a reporter had and the hatch office and the reporter had about whether we compromise in washington. trivia, how