Presidential campaign off to cautious start

WASHINGTON -- In the risky business of running for president, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are largely playing it safe.

For all the small daily dramas of the 2012 campaign, there's a risk-averse dynamic playing out: Neither candidate has been making bold new policy proposals or displaying a freewheeling personal style. So far, at least.

Part of that is just who they are: Obama always has been known for his cool demeanor, and Romney has discipline built into his corporate pedigree.

But the Democratic incumbent and his presumptive GOP opponent are men who know how to gamble: Obama decided to run for president after just two years in the Senate, launched an ambitious health care overhaul effort while the economy was still on shaky ground, and gave the "go" order on the Osama bin Laden raid. Romney entered politics after a career in private equity, where risk is part of the job description.

Despite their backgrounds, their caution as candidates extends well beyond personal style.

The president debated for weeks how and when to announce that he supports gay marriage, and only went public after remarks by Vice President Joe Biden nudged him along. When Obama finally did make his announcement, his words were carefully measured to tamp down any backlash. He spoke of dinnertime conversations with his daughters about treating people equally, and of abiding by the Golden Rule.

Romney, too, treated the issue gingerly. He restated his opposition to legalizing such marriages, but called it a "very tender and sensitive topic" and said he supported extending certain rights to gay couples.

Political psychologist Stan Renshon, a professor at City University of New York, said Romney has clearly decided that the pluses of sticking to a script outweigh any minuses.

"His No. 1 priority at this point is to establish himself as a bona fide alternative," Renshon said, "and the less risky he sounds, the more conventional, the more boring, the better off he is."

And Renshon said Obama's even demeanor helps him fend off accusations that he's too radical. The president's re-election argument is a recitation of promises kept and a plea for more time to deliver on those yet to be fulfilled.

Both candidates also have been wary in their interactions with the press -- to the point that Romney's aides recently tried to physically bar reporters from approaching the candidate to question him as he shook hands with people standing along a rope line.

Obama, for his part, is happy to use the news media when it suits his purposes -- he hastily scheduled a TV interview to reveal his shift on gay marriage -- and to pummel reporters when that fits his campaign narrative.

David Ropeik, a Harvard professor and author of several books on risk, said it's no surprise that the candidates are being cautious "in a no-holds-barred, 24-7, scream-a-thon world, where any hint of what the other side might see as an error is guaranteed to explode."

But Ropeik said both men need to know that being too careful can do them more harm than good. "Candidates take a huge risk by being so buttoned up that they fail to express human sincerity," Ropeik said. "It's risky not to be sincere -- even though sincerity is risky."