Romney foreign policy adviser dances around calling the boss 'neoconservative'

Given the constant waffling, bobbling, flipping, flopping, stumbling, gaffing, evading, weaseling, equivocating and, of course, prevaricating of the candidate Republicans have chosen to be their party's standard-bearer, pinning Mitt Romney down on where he stands on anything beyond making life easier for the top tier of Americans is harder than stapling Jello to a wall.

The best guide for what a Romney presidency would look like comes from checking out the list of his advisers. That's true in energy, where the favored guy is shale-oil magnate Harold Hamm, the 78th richest American, and in foreign policy, where a pack of neoconservative retreads from the Bush administration are whispering in Romney's ear. Romney calls President Obama "feckless" and "weak" and an "appeaser" in the latest version of a GOP technique that started six decades ago when the party blamed Harry Truman after Mao won the Chinese civil war more than six decades ago.

But would Romney's foreign policy be the neoconservative Bush Doctrine on steroids? Hard to tell. Because, aside from a few gushes about a stronger military and attacks on Obama for being an apologist for America's enemies and an unreliable friend to its allies, especially Israel, there are few actual foreign policy specifics coming from the campaign.

Despite the boatload of neoconservative advisers like Dan Senor and Elliott Abrams, when it comes to whether the candidate himself is a "neoconservative," Team Romney dances. Here is foreign policy and legal adviser Alex Wong in a telling exchange with the Washington Post's Jason Horowitz:

'You know,' said Wong, 'throughout this campaign Governor Romney has indicated that his view on the world is peace through strength, American leadership, in guaranteeing an American century, that this new century continues to be an American century. And that's the governing philosophy of Governor Romney on peace through strength.'

So does he consider himself a neoconservative?

'What I'm saying is,' said Wong, 'Governor Romney's embrace of American values and interests and his call for American leadership is a philosophy of peace through strength.'

So then does he dispute the classisfication of neoconservative?

'What I'm saying is,' said Wong, 'Governor Romney's embrace of American values and interests and his call for American leadership''

And on for four more reiterations of the same mush after which Horowitz finally surrenders.

Does the label matter? Not really. We know all we need to know given the prominence in the campaign of men and women who wear the label proudly. They will be pulling the strings if Romney manages to overcome all the negatives against him and capture the White House. The label to fear him attaching to himself is "Mr. President."