Romney accuses Obama of 'hide-and-seek'

WASHINGTON -- Mitt Romney unleashed a strong attack on President Barack Obama's truthfulness yesterday, accusing him of running a "hide-and-seek" re-election campaign designed to distract voters from his first-term record while denying them information about his plans for a second.

Addressing an audience of newspaper editors and publishers, Romney said Obama's recent remarks to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on a second-term arms reduction treaty had called "his candor into question."

Romney, the likely GOP opponent for Obama in November, also accused the president of undergoing "a series of election-year conversions" on taxes, government regulation and energy production.

"He does not want to share his real plans before the election, either with the public or with the press," Romney said. "By flexibility, he means that what the American public doesn't know won't hurt him. He is intent on hiding. You and I will have to do the seeking."

Romney himself has been sharply criticized by Rick Santorum and other Republican rivals for changing his own positions on issues ranging from abortion to climate control as part of an attempt to win the backing of conservative primary voters.

Earlier this year, he reversed course on the minimum wage to bring his stance in line with party orthodoxy, saying he no longer believes it should rise along with inflation.

Romney spoke to the Newspaper Association of America and the American Society of Newspaper Editors as the Republican nominee-in-waiting, his standing confirmed by three primary victories Tuesday night in Wisconsin, Maryland and Washington, D.C.

The former Massachusetts governor holds a commanding lead in delegates to the Republican National Convention and is on a pace to clinch the party's top prize by the end of the primary season in June.

Responding to a question, he declined to say if he would support proposed legislation to protect confidential sources that journalists often rely on.

"Do I see a role for confidential sources? Yes. Do I ever see a time when a confidential source would have to be revealed? Yeah, I can see that, too," he said.