Using the calendar of candidate's schedules on the Politico website, I calculated how Mitt Romney has been spending his time since January 1. I used four categories:
*Public events such as rallies, speeches, town halls, etc.
*Media appearances (Hannity, Good Morning America, Leno, etc.)
*Fundraisers
*Days with no events on his schedule
For the first three it is possible to have more than one per day.
I then grouped the tallies by quarter and graphed them.
What did I learn? That in the last six months Mitt Romney has had 70 days with no events on his schedule...not even fundraising.
Why is Mitt Romney entirely absent from the campaign trail one day out of three?
Speculation after the squiggle.
Theory #1: The Politico data is bad. If any of you have a better historical calendar, can you tell me about?
Theory #2: Romney doesn't realize he is losing.
And when Romney was asked for Sunday’s CBS’s “60 Minutes” whether he can turn around his campaign, he was dismissive.
“Well, it doesn’t need a turnaround. We’ve got a campaign which is tied with an incumbent president to the United States,” Romney said.
link
Theory #3: It is the best his staff can do. Romney simply isn't "a draw". It is so hard for him to draw a respectable crowd and he needs so much advance work to do it that his advance team can only work on a few events a week.
h/t to bobvm
Theory #4: It is the best Romney can do. He isn't physically capable of more.
In 1968 Romney was in a car accident and received head trauma severe enough to put him in a coma. There is circumstantial evidence that he is suffering the after-effects of that brain trauma to this day. His awkward personality. His volcanic temper that Ann has to "manage". His forgetfulness. His bizarre circumlocutions.
Remember when he went to London? Of course you do. Jet-lagged and in unfamiliar surroundings, the gaffe-count when off the chart.
It is possible that Mitt's campaign staff looked at the bucketful of bizarro incidents from Q1 (when Romney was keeping a more hectic schedule) (the singing, "the trees are the right height", the NASCAR gaffes I and II all date from this time) and decided he simply has to be rested in order prevent future dimbo erruptions.
Theory #5. He is such an empty suit that keeping him away from the public, the press, and donors is simply the smart thing to do.