Give Mitt a Break

I understand what you are saying about Gov Romney. But at this level of politics, I expect the candidate (especially one who has been running for 5 years) to be more politically astute when he is talking informally. Gov Romney is better than he sounds, but this is a self inflicted injury that is becoming all to common for him.
I am a Gov Romney supporter, despite this. But it is getting harder.

Perhaps. But when his own party is trying to dismantle the safety net, it is hard to credit what Romney said. The Romney who really tried to deal with the health care issue when he was governor is not the same Romney running for president. Maybe that is part of the problem Romney has "connecting" with voters - the man he really is, a practical, intelligent, problem solver, who really does believe that government can do good things - that Romney cannot exist in the far right Teapublican world view.

He said that if the social safety net were broken, he would fix it. Usually at this stage, candidates already have some ideas on fixing the net rather than cutting more holes in it. You might even expect him to know about the holes two of his chief opponents cut in it or the plans of his other opponent to simply shred the net. Santorum and Gingrich take credit for a welfare reform which included the kind of limits that make pregnant recipients seek the services of Planned Parenthood - and not for birth control. What is disheartening is that the Catholic press, including NCR, give them a pass on it, or on the fact that half of those who were on Welfare were dropped from the rolls, with many of these slipping through the cracks.