Romney’s two-fold strategic approach has been to present himself as the inevitable nominee while keeping his fire mostly directed at the president. Challengers traditionally try to make the general election campaign a referendum on the incumbent, but Romney has yet to flesh out a clear rationale for his candidacy beyond his oft-stated spiel that Obama is performing poorly.

And he hasn’t clearly explained why he’d be a better president — and what he would do in office to get the nation on its feet again economically. Asked Thursday to provide some clarity to that end, he said simply, “I could assure voters, that if I were president of the United States, I would spend every waking moment doing what I could to get Americans back to work. I would focus my energy and passion on the economy and getting Americans good jobs.”

He later offered that he would cut federal spending and put in place a balanced-budget amendment, GOP boilerplate that does not flesh out his contention that the economy is in his wheelhouse.