Just what the heck is Mitt Romney's strategy

His face is on all the big magazine covers, but he won’t do profile interviews, went negative against the current GOP field leader and won’t accept a face-to-face debate with the one man between him and the White House. What is Mitt Romney’s campaign strategy?

This weekend, Mitt’s mug will grace the coveres of  Time, The New York Times Magazine and Parade. Mitt only did a lengthy, sit-down interview with one – Parade.

Time’s Joe Klein complained about Mitt’s actions saying that, “It’s an idiotic strategy, because usually what politicians do is to do big profile-y sort of interviews at the front end of a campaign and then close off access at the end.”

While some surmise that Romney’s handlers bypassed Time to give interviews to Parade so that Romney could handle softball questions on his personal character and family values, it may also paint him as weak, timid or afraid of the hard news media.

The Romney campaign took another strange tack in recent weeks – they went negative on someone other than Obama. In a Fox News interview with Bret Baier last Thursday, Mitt shaped every comment to paint Newt Gingrich as a lifetime politician and a flip-flopper in the hopes of deflecting the criticism he is receiving from voters for having changed stances on global warming, cap-and-trade, right-to-life and stimulus spending.

To continue the list of confounding moves, Mitt Romney refused a face-to-face debate with Newt Gingrich. Granted, Newt is a skillful debater and would likely outshine the former governor. The refusal turns that assumption into a foregone conclusion – Mitt can’t beat Newt head-to-head. As a MarkAmerica.com post said:

If the former Massachusetts Governor had confidence in his message, this sort of opportunity would be just the sort of event he could use, not only to knock off Newt as the front-runner, but also to demonstrate his ability to go head-to-head with one of the more agile minds in politics.

The Romney campaign is unleashing another, newer, shinier strategy. Yesterday, the campaign announced the “earn it” campaign. Romney has been going door-to-door in New Hampshire ahead of the January 10th primary. His strategy includes a month of “super Saturdays” where, according to his website, “volunteers will mobilize in New Hampshire to make calls, knock doors and connect with voters. Our team is energized and excited to act on its support for Mitt.” He has no such effort going in Iowa as if he has already conceded that to Newt Gingrich.

Mitt’s strategy is all over the place – big news, but not hard interviews. He will only do the game show style debates. Now grass roots, but in only one state. The question is begged – what the heck is Mitt Romney’s strategy?