When I was a kid there was a game show called Who Do You Trust?. I don’t remember ever watching but I remember seeing the promos on my TV. I think elections come down to that question.

Politicians are not known for their forthrightness. I liked that last word and it seemed to fit but I had to look it up to make sure. Forthrightness is defined as “Direct and without evasion” or “straightforward” by the Free Dictionary.

Politicians are good at telling you what you want to hear, not what you should know about them or their plans. We select our leaders with imperfect and incomplete information.

I’ve complained about Mitt Romney’s lack of specifics many times in the past months but to be fair I should note that Barack Obama is not always very specific about what he would do in a second term. But as I see it, the President has spent almost 4 years being very specific, even sending specific plans to Congress with proposals of what he would like to do.

Think about our real needs to rebuild our decaying infrastructure or educate workers or help veterans re-enter the job market. The president has proposed plans. Congress rejects these plans. It always seems to be Republicans blocking these plans. (To be fair I note that Democrats often reject Republican plans.)

Now I am not saying that each of Obama’s plans is perfect or that Congress could not work with the administration to improve these plans. But in many cases, Congress did not suggest improvements but just rejected these plans on a partisan basis. My point is that you have a pretty good idea about the type of things he would like to do.

Governor Romney has no such track record. All we have are his vague statements, a track record as governor of Massachusetts but he has pretty much denied everything he has done there (except for being a bipartisan guy which is somewhat in dispute), and his business record. It is unclear to me how this would translate into success in running the federal government.

I think all elected leaders run on a platform of “trust me”. But in this race, Romney requires a lot more trust.