TAMPA, Fla. – Among Mitt Romney’s many virtues and accomplishments listed Thursday evening, one of his foremost achievements as governor – enacting sweeping health care reform – was noticeably absent.

Also missing from most of this week’s convention was any mention of the winding-down wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, two of the engagements that had largely defined the Republican Party for much of the past decade.

Two top officials from Romney’s time as governor of Massachusetts, Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey and Workforce Development Secretary Jane Edmonds, offered testimonials on the Republican presidential nominee’s behalf during the final night in Tampa.

Slideshow: Republican National Convention

But neither of them – and, really, none of the other speakers this week – so much as mentioned the landmark health care reform law Romney signed into law during his lone term in office.

The convention included plenty of promises to undo “Obamacare,” the colloquial name for the health care overhaul President Barack Obama pushed through Congress.

Joe Skipper / Reuters

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney takes the stage to formally accept the presidential nomination during the final session of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, August 30, 2012.

"We will champion small businesses, America’s engine of job growth," Romney said in his acceptance speech. “That means reducing taxes on business, not raising them … it means that we must rein in the skyrocketing cost of health care by repealing and replacing Obamacare."

“The president has declared that the debate over government-controlled health care is over,” Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan said in his Wednesday night address. “That will come as news to the millions of Americans who will elect Mitt Romney so we can repeal Obamacare.”

But the convention all but glossed over “Romneycare,” the markedly similar Massachusetts law that Obama has often cited as a model for his own health care law.

Similarly, Romney made no mention of Iraq or Afghanistan, nor did former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a major figure in orchestrating those two wars for the Bush administration.

The only major figure to really make mention of either of the wars was Arizona Sen. John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee.

"By committing to withdraw from Afghanistan before peace can be achieved and sustained, the president has discouraged our friends and emboldened our enemies, which is why our commanders did not recommend that decision and why they have said it puts our mission at greater risk," McCain said on Wednesday night.

Romney has struggled to distinguish himself from Obama in terms of how he would differently handle the two wars, and the economy is undoubtedly the prime issue of the 2012 election.

But the Massachusetts law has always been a more politically thorny issue for Romney, having almost tripped up the nominee during the primary fight, precisely for those similarities to Obama’s reforms.

“He is the worst Republican in the country to put up against Barack Obama,” former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said in March of Romney because of that Massachusetts law.

Bringing up Romney’s health care law would, at a minimum, risk cognitive dissonance on the issue; at worst, its mention could stir an angry reaction from the conservative delegates gathered here in Florida.

But conventions are carefully scripted affairs that often help decipher what message a party will carry into the fall campaign. The Romney campaign made clear this week that the economy, jobs and Medicare will be at the core of this November’s election. But maybe not health care.

Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

President Barack Obama wipes perspiration from his face as he speaks Saturday in a sweltering gym during a campaign stop at Windham High School in Windham, N.H.

WINDHAM, N.H. – Speaking in a hot, crowded gymnasium here, President Barack Obama kicked off a day of campaigning in this key battleground state where he is running neck-and-neck with his challenger, Mitt Romney.

There’s so much on this issue, it deserves its own section.

This headline from Reuters might be the most important point: “Presidential campaign focus turns to Medicare, not jobs.”

“Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign is trying to stay on the offensive in the increasingly heated debate over the future of Medicare,” the AP writes. “Romney and his running mate, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, signaled Wednesday that they invite scrutiny of their plans for the health care program that affects tens of millions of seniors. Such a focus would thrust the budget proposal Ryan authored — which included a controversial measure to transform Medicare into a voucher-like system — into the center of the race for the White House… The debate comes as Romney’s campaign continues an effort to undermine one of Obama’s greatest campaign strengths, his personal likability, trying to portray the outwardly calm Obama as a man seething with animosity and power lust.”

“GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s new promise to restore the Medicare cuts made by President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul law could backfire if he’s elected,” the AP adds. “The reason: Obama’s cuts also extended the life of Medicare’s giant trust fund, and by repealing them Romney would move the insolvency date of the program closer, toward the end of what would be his first term in office. Instead of running out of money in 2024, Medicare says its trust fund for inpatient care would go broke in 2016 without the cuts. That could leave a President Romney little political breathing room to finalize his own Medicare plan.”

Yet here’s how the campaign responded: ‘The idea that restoring funding to Medicare could somehow hasten its bankruptcy is on its face absurd,’’ said spokeswoman Andrea Saul.

USA Today tries to set the record straight on the Medicare plans: To hear President Obama's re-election campaign tell it, you would think Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan want to end Medicare immediately and give the money to millionaires. And to hear Romney and Ryan tell it, you'd think Obama wants to fleece Granny and Grandpa of $700 billion in Medicare benefits and use the cash to finance ‘Obamacare.’

The truth is nothing of the sort — but those charges may drown out the truth between now and Election Day.”

It notes that Ryan’s original plan could have been characterized as ending “Medicare as we know it,” but not anymore. “The original budget plan written by Ryan and passed by House Republicans would turn Medicare into a ‘premium support’ plan. Seniors would have a fixed government subsidy with which to purchase private insurance — but the new version of that plan includes an option to retain traditional Medicare coverage.” But it adds that Ryan’s plan would make Medicare more expensive for seniors, “because the money seniors would get to put toward their insurance would be capped, while medical costs would not.”

It also points out of Obama’s “cuts”: “There are no cuts in benefits, and, in fact, seniors have already seen preventive services, such as annual exams and cancer screenings, with no co-pays. Instead, the savings comes by decreasing provider payments.” And: “Ryan's plan would repeal the health care law but keep the $716 billion in savings in place.”

And what about Medicaid? “Mr. Ryan’s budget is tougher on Medicaid, the big state-federal insurance program for the poor, which currently picks up the tab for a much of the nursing-home care of the elderly,” the Wall Street Journal writes.

The Wall Street Journal: “Paul Ryan Ventures Into the Medicare Debate.” The Wisconsin congressman did not discuss his budget proposal, which would use government-funded premium vouchers to subsidize the cost of private insurance plans. And he did not offer a specific plan from the Republican ticket beyond saying that he and Mr. Romney would protect and strengthen Medicare for today’s seniors and the seniors of the future. Instead, he argued that a second Obama term would mean drastic cuts to Medicare.” That’s even though Ryan’s budget assumes the same cuts.

Reuters: “Republicans gambling in taking Medicare issue head-on.” “The danger, according to political analysts, is that elderly dislike for Ryan's plan could shave off as much as 5 percentage points of voter support from the Republican ticket in closely fought races in half a dozen swing states, including Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania,” it writes. “Many Republican officials initially expressed misgivings about the Ryan pick. But a growing number now believe a powerful offensive could recast Medicare as a debate about President Barack Obama's unpopular healthcare reform law, a tactic that drew enough senior citizen support in 2010 to win a Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.”

HOUSTON -- Mitt Romney likely didn't win any votes at the national NAACP convention on Wednesday, but the African American atendees gave the presumptive GOP nominee credit nonetheless for trying.

The crowd gathered in Texas for the civil rights group's annual meeting booed Romney for vowing to repeal President Obama's health care reform law.

Evan Vucci / AP

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks before the NAACP annual convention July 11 in Houston, Texas.

"I'm going to eliminate every non-essential, expensive program I can find. That includes Obamacare," Romney told the overwhelmingly African American membership gathered for his address, as a chorus of boos forced the candidate to stop his speech for fifteen seconds, then veer off script to defend his position.

But this audience was never likely to be a friendly crowd for the presumptive GOP nominee, with African American voters supporting President Obama over John McCain 95 to 4 percent in 2008, and with current polls showing a similar split in this election cycle. Romney made note of the tough room with a joke at the start of his remarks.

"I appreciate the chance to speak first – even before Vice President Biden gets his turn tomorrow," Romney said. "I just hope the Obama campaign won’t think you’re playing favorites." 

Several attendees said after the speech that while they appreciated Romney appearing here, he would never win their support.

"I give him kudos for coming here, I really do. He had nerves," said Betty Bush, a retired auto worker from Alabama, who then added she could think of "nothing," that she agreed with in Romney's remarks.

"I thought it was courageous for him and gracious of him to come, and we really appreciate that," said Steven Goings, who traveled to Texas from Monterrey, California for the convention. "Certainly I disagree with most of what he says, but that's to be expected."

The candidate made several attempts to reach out to the black community specifically in his speech: highlighting his father's work on civil rights in the 1960's, pledging to improve the job market for blacks, who suffer from a disproportionately high 14.4 percent unemployment rate, and highlighting his education reform work as Massachusetts governor.

Romney's comments on education -- specifically his often-told story of protecting charter schools in Massachusetts with the help of the black caucus in the Massachusetts legislature -- appeared to be the most popular element of his speech today, here in the home city of the successful KIPP charter school system.

"We need Obamacare," said Liz Cotton, a grandmother from Virginia, when asked what she thought of Romney's speech, adding:"I agree with him on Charter schools. I think charter schools are really good."

Campaign officials said they were pleased with the reception Romney received overall, noting many of his positions -- including pushing back against China on trade issues -- earned notable applause. Several political analysts also noted today that Romney's audience today was broader than just those in the room if he could appeal to moderates and independents just by showing up at the convention. (As the Republican nominee in 2008 John McCain also spoke to the group, as did then-Senator Obama, who begged off this year citing scheduling conflicts)

But on the economic argument that he could be a better president for people of all colors in America -- the core of Romney's campaign message -- Romney appeared to make little headway with this audience.

"I wouldn't say there was nothing to his argument," said Goings, offering faint praise, and adding that he would "certainly" be voting for Obama again this year.

Romney was interrupted with boos twice more for criticizing the president in the course of a twenty five minute address to an audience that was likely the least-supportive one he has spoken to all campaign season. He earned only smatterings of applause for his policy positions, but ultimately receiving a brief, cordial standing ovation from the several hundred attendees as he wrapped up his remarks.

Mitt Romney found himself on the receiving end of a loud chorus of boos when he promised to repeal health care reform during a speech before the NAACP.

"If our goal is jobs, we have to stop spending over a trillion dollars more than we take in every year. So to do that, I'm going to eliminate every non-essential, expensive program I can find. That includes Obamacare, and I'm going to work to reform and save -- " Romney said, being interrupted by boos.

Romney otherwise encountered polite applause in his speech, which hit on themes of jobs and the economy -- mainstays of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee's overall stump speech -- as well as education reform.

The former Massachusetts governor faced an uphill task politically in speaking before the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), one of the most historic and well-established civil rights groups. President Barack Obama, as the nation's first black president, enjoys tremendous levels of support and enthusiasm from black voters, who helped propel Obama to office in 2008 in key swing states.

Romney joked about the fact that he's unlikely to win over many African American voters. "I appreciate the chance to speak first -- even before Vice President Biden gets his turn tomorrow," he said. "I just hope the Obama campaign won’t think you’re playing favorites."

But the speech, overall, was intended to portray his candidacy as one for all Americans, unified by a theme of improving the economy. Romney pledged to return to speak before the NAACP at its convention next year, should he be elected.

Romney also spoke with reverence toward the legacy of his father, Michigan Gov. George Romney, a Republican who broke with his party at times over the issue of civil rights.

"For every one of us a particular person comes to mind, someone who set a standard of conduct and made us better by their example. For me, that man is my father, George Romney," he said, detailing some of his father's work to advance civil rights.

Now it’s a tax? “Mitt Romney Wednesday reversed the position staked out by his own campaign just two days before and said the penalty levied against Americans who do not buy health insurance under President Obama’s health care overhaul is ‘a tax,’” the Boston Globe writes. Romney told CBS: “The majority of the court said it is a tax, therefore it is a tax. The majority has spoken. There is no way around that.”

And get this… “During a parade in Wolfeboro, NH, Romney was told by someone in the crowd that the health care penalty was a tax. ‘I agree,’ Romney replied.”

Newsweek/Daily Beast’s Tomasky: “After some tap dancing, Mitt Romney now says the individual mandate is a tax. Democrats should call his bluff and agree—it'll hurt Mitt far more than Obama.”

GOP 12: “Hogan Gidley, a former adviser for Rick Santorum's erstwhile presidential bid, tells Talking Points Memo that his boss tried to warn voters about Mitt Romney's difficulty with prosecuting the case against ObamaCare.” He said, “It’s a problem, I’m not going to lie.... Here we are a couple months into the general and you’re going, ‘Hey wait a minute, that Rick Santorum was right'."

CBN’s David Brody: “It makes you wonder if Rick Santorum was on to something when he said it would be a mistake to nominate Romney because it makes arguing the healthcare issue extremely difficult. You think President Obama will be ready with a few good one-liners for the fall debates? You betcha.”

Romney’s attempts to “clarify” or wiggle out of his position on the mandate reminds that back in October, George Will called Romney “the pretzel candidate.” Will hit him for “twists” on ethanol, TARP, and collective bargaining. Will wrote, “A straddle is not a political philosophy; it is what you do when you do not have one.” And he called him “a recidivist reviser of his principles.” Will concluded: “Has conservatism come so far, surmounting so many obstacles, to settle, at a moment of economic crisis, for this?”

Bermuda Shorts: AP: “For nearly 15 years, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's financial portfolio has included an offshore company that remained invisible to voters as his political star rose. Based in Bermuda, Sankaty High Yield Asset Investors Ltd. was not listed on any of Romney's state or federal financial reports. The company is among several Romney holdings that have not been fully disclosed, including one that recently posted a $1.9 million earning - suggesting he could be wealthier than the nearly $250 million estimated by his campaign. The omissions were permitted by state and federal authorities overseeing Romney's ethics filings, and he has never been cited for failing to disclose information about his money. But Romney's limited disclosures deprive the public of an accurate depiction of his wealth and a clear understanding of how his assets are handled and taxed, according to experts in private equity, tax and campaign finance law.”

The Obama campaign, in pushing the story, said it “raises serious questions about whether Mitt Romney established a Bermuda corporation to avoid U.S. taxes and attempted to hide it from the public.” And it put out a web video entitled, “Do you have an offshore bank account?”

“President Obama’s re-election campaign pounced on recent reports about Mitt Romney’s offshore holdings as new details emerged about a Bermuda-based company that was omitted from multiple financial disclosure reports,” the New York Daily News writes.

And it dings him for his home in New Hampshire: “Mitt Romney’s week-long vacation at his opulent lakehouse has reinforced the common line of attack that he’s out of touch with the common voter — a controversy President Obama may be trying to avoid. … Yet whether he’s on a jet ski or not, Romney’s wealth — estimated at more than $250 million — made more uncomfortable headlines for him on Tuesday. The fortune, mostly made at Bain Capital, is largely held in a complex and opaque offshore network, including a Swiss bank account and in tax havens like Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, according to a Vanity Fair report. Also, his campaign must now distance itself from the CEO of Barclays, who stepped down from the British bank Tuesday amid an interest-rate fixing scandal.”

The Romney campaign for its part is hitting Obama for “broken promises.” “With no record to run on, no rationale for re-election, and no positive message – President Obama is on the defensive, trying to win back the support of skeptical voters in states like Ohio and Pennsylvania where he has failed to follow through on his promises on health care, unemployment, and spending,” the campaign writes in a morning email.

And it links to several not-so-positive headlines for the president as he makes his way through Ohio:

Cleveland Plain Dealer, “Democrats And Republicans See Challenges For President Barack Obama In Key Mahoning Valley”
Toledo Blade, “Obama Trip Recalls to GOP Biden Visit Four Years Earlier”
Cleveland Plain Dealer, Sen. Portman Op-Ed: “Obama's Policies Are Stifling The Recovery”
Toledo Blade, “GOP Governors In Maumee Before Obama Visit”
Cleveland Plain Dealer, “Romney Campaign To Rival Obama Bus Tour Through Ohio With Bobby Jindal And Tim Pawlenty.”

There’s also the Akron Beacon Journal front page: “High jobless rate expected for years.”
And the Cleveland Plain Dealer front page: “Romney’s Mahoning Valley opportunity.”
The Youngstown Vindicator: “Romney campaign to stop in Valley; GOP hopeful wants to stay a step ahead of Obama’s bus tour.”

Of course, on the other hand:

Sandusky Register flag on the background of an American flag and the president’s face: “Welcome, President Obama. Obama visits Sandusky today; public access limited.”
The Toledo Blade (with a smiling Obama): “China to face accusation of unfair trade. Complaint to world body affects Toledo-made SUVs.”
The Ravenna Record-Courier: “Aurora man wins contest, has lunch with Obama.”
The Dayton Daily News front page: “IT job demand brings six-figure salaries.”
Hamilton Journal News: “Demand for IT jobs boosting salaries.”

Charles Dharapak / AP

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, accompanied by his Ann, address a crowd after they walked in the Fourth of July Parade in Wolfeboro, N.H., Wednesday. At right is son Craig Romney.

WOLFEBORO, N.H.-- Mitt Romney contradicted a top aide to his campaign and aligned himself instead with the Republican establishment in labeling the health care mandate a tax, not a penalty, as Democrats have contended.

"Now the Supreme Court has spoken and while I agreed with the dissent, that’s taken over by the fact that the majority of the court said it’s a tax," Romney said in an interview Wednesday with CBS. "Therefore it is a tax. They have spoken. There’s no way around that.  You can try and say you wish they’d decided a different way, but they didn't. They concluded it’s a tax. That’s what it is."

Romney's description of the health care mandate as a tax aligns his position with that of GOP leaders, who have for days used the Supreme Court's majority decision upholding the law under Congress's taxation authority as a cudgel with which to attack Democrats and the president as having raised taxes.

Earlier this week, Romney senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom took a position in an interview with NBC's Chuck Todd that the mandate should be labeled a fee or a penalty, not a tax, and repeating again that Romney agreed with the Supreme Court's dissenting opinion, written by Antonin Scalia, that the mandate should be considered a penalty or fee and would therefore be unconstitutional.

By stating that the mandate is indeed a tax, Romney can now join a chorus of Republican leaders in attacking the president for what he claims was breaking a central pledge of Obama's candidacy -- not to raise taxes on middle-income Americans. But in doing so, he opens himself up to a similar attack: that the mandate in the health care law he passed in Massachusetts was also a tax.

"The American people know that President Obama has broken the pledge he made," Romney said in the CBS interview. "He said he wouldn’t raise taxes on middle-income Americans."

Wednesday morning's interview was Romney's first public appearance in several days, as the candidate took the weekend off to vacation at his summer home here on Lake Winnepesaukee. Romney was joined here by all five of his sons and their children, filling his lakeside compound to the brim with activity over several days of boating, volleyball and at least one meeting with top campaign aides on the house's back deck. 

That meeting, attended by campaign manager Matt Rhoades and senior adviser Beth Myers, who heads Romney's vice presidential search effort, has fueled speculation that Romney may be close to picking a number two on the ticket.

Wednesday, Romney took part in the Wolfeboro Independence Day parade, along with most of his family and with Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), who is considered by many political analysts to be on Romney's vice presidential short list. If parade-goers were looking for clues to the candidate's intentions or to hear policy discussed, they may have come away disappointed.

Instead, the attitude along the parade route through Main street was patriotic and festive, with the candidate criss-crossing the street to shake hands with supporters, snap photos and guzzle lemonade from a roadside stand. At the parade's conclusion at Brewster Academy, which overlooks the lake, Romney praised the "fighting men and women around the world continue to inspire me," and gave brief remarks saluting America on her birthday.

"I love this country," Romney said. "I love the people who have built this country."

Updated 12:04 p.m. - The Supreme Court's determination last week that health care reform could be sustained as an extension of the power of Congress to tax has launched a battle of political semantics in Washington over taxes. 

Republicans have latched on to the high court's ruling that the individual mandate -- the requirement that individuals have insurance, or pay a penalty to the IRS -- was essentially a tax. Though the majority decision was authored, ironically, by conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, it offered an affirmation of Republicans' long-held contention that President Barack Obama's signature domestic achievement represented a tax hike.

Democrats have preferred, instead, to call it a "penalty" rather than a tax, parrying Republicans' attacks by using language presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney has used in defense of his own similar health reform law in Massachusetts.

As recently as this Monday morning, the Romney campaign was using the same language.

"It was a penalty, and the governor had all the authority he needed under our state constitution to put in the reforms that he did put in place," Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom said this morning on MSNBC. "The governor has consistently described the mandate in Massachusetts as a penalty."

Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom

The aftermath of the court's ruling, in short, has resulted in a bizarre situation. Republicans -- including Romney -- attack "ObamaCare" as a tax, even as the party's standard-bearer uses language to defend the Massachusetts law that closely resembles Obama's law. (The Romney campaign is also quick to note that there are other taxes included in the health care law beyond the mandate.)

“The Supreme Court left President Obama with two choices: the federal individual mandate in Obamacare is either a constitutional tax or an unconstitutional penalty. Governor Romney thinks it is an unconstitutional penalty. What is President Obama’s position: is his federal mandate unconstitutional or is it a tax?” asked Amanda Henneberg, a spokeswoman for Romney.

And Democrats are uncomfortably wedded to a Supreme Court decision that handed them their desired outcome, but created for them a new political headache. Mindful that embracing a new tax could be politically treacherous for them in November, the White House and Democrats downballot are scrambling to spin the mandate as anything but a tax, despite the court's ruling and the fact that the "penalty" is paid to the IRS.

Republicans pointed to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's comments toward the decision on "Meet the Press" this Sunday as an acknowledgement of that.

"It's a penalty that comes under the tax code for the 1 percent, perhaps, of the population who decide they're going to be free riders," said the California Democrat, who as House speaker was one of the law's chief proponents.

The GOP is likely to find much more success in using this tactic downballot. They have been hammering away at House and Senate candidates since the decision was first announced.

The National Republican Congressional Committee, for instance, has targeted Democratic candidates in releases and videos throughout the weekend for supporting, they assert, a tax hike.

For its part, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, has pushed back by launching automated calls against Republicans that accuse them of wishing to "put insurance companies back in charge of our health care."

But that appears set to be a separate battle from the one between Romney and Obama. Republicans' most visible figure this election year will have trouble explaining to voters how his proposal in Massachusetts is not a tax, but Obama's is. That was a chief conservative criticism of Romney during the primary: that he was the worst possible candidate to challenge Obama on health care, because of the similar law he had passed.

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has laid out a first term agenda that is nothing short of ambitious, outlining a list of priorities that would require him to marshal a near-impossible amount of political capital to achieve.

"What the court did not do on its last day in session, I will do on my first day if elected president of the United States. And that is I will act to repeal ‘ObamaCare,’" Romney said Thursday in Washington, adding to his portfolio the politically thorny pledge to undo President Obama’s health reform law.

Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney gives his reaction to the Supreme Court's upholding key parts of President Barack Obama's signature healthcare overhaul law in Washington June 28, 2012.

The list of promises Romney has made for his first term is extensive. His two “Day One” ads outline other policies the former Massachusetts governor would put in motion on his first day:

• Seeking tax cuts and deficit reduction,
• Approving the Keystone XL oil pipeline,
• Issuing more aggressive strictures for trade with China,
• And seeking the repeal of “job-killing regulations” (the financial regulatory reform bill, Dodd-Frank, is an example Romney mentions frequently on the campaign trail)

More substantially, Romney has promised to seek some type of comprehensive immigration reform – an accomplishment that has escaped both Obama and President George W. Bush – in his first year in office.

"In my first year I will make sure we actually do take on immigration, we secure our border, we make sure that we grow legal immigration in a way that provides people here with skill and expertise that we want," Romney said at a fundraiser earlier this week.

All this is on top of lofty expectations Romney’s set for himself on the economy; he said in May that an unemployment rate above 4 percent is “not cause for celebration.”

“It's going to be busy,” deadpanned a House Republican leadership aide, speaking of Romney’s agenda.

Presidential candidates are not typically modest in their election year promises.

Obama, as a candidate in 2008, made a number of promises that haven’t made their way to fulfillment. Romney has been eager to highlight, for instance, the president’s inability to accomplish comprehensive immigration reform.

And to Romney’s credit, despite the criticism the presumptive Republican nominee has weathered for offering few specifics about his first-term agenda, his first term proposals seem to outpace Obama’s ambitions for his second.

Romney, like Obama and any number of candidates entering their first term as president, might encounter a stark reality. Governing is about as easy as herding cats, and that process isn’t helped by the glacial pace on Capitol Hill.

First Thoughts: Ending the month on a high note

Presidents often enjoy a “honeymoon” in which they’re able to advance a major element of their platform. Bush got education reform and his signature tax cuts; Obama got his stimulus bill.

And that’s to assume, the Republicans maintain control of the House and take over the Senate – in which case, prospective Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) would be tasked with convincing a non-trivial number of Democrats to join the GOP in advancing Romney’s agenda.

Romney could seek the repeal of health care as his first priority, something he might accomplish by using the process of budget reconciliation. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) suggested Friday on “Morning Joe” that Republicans could use this tactic, which allows the Senate to approve legislation with a simple majority of votes, to gut the heart of Obama’s law.

But even if this were to be achievable practically, it would be a bloody fight on which Romney would have to spend considerable political capital.

“He comes into office, and Day One is getting your secretary of State or secretary of Treasury confirmed!” said former Delaware Sen. Ted Kaufman (D), who long served as an aide in the chamber before succeeding Joe Biden in the chamber, of a new president’s traditional to-do list.

“You’re just going to declare war on the Democrats from the first day you get into office?” Kaufman said. “Obama didn’t do that, and he had 60 votes.”

There are always foreign policy crises and the unexpected issues – like 2010’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico – that can divert from the business of governing.

“If the Democratic leadership wants to criticize a President Romney for fulfilling his promises, it's not something that's going to play well with voters,” said the House Republican aide, evaluating the broad range of issues Romney has promised to advance.

On some of those issues, too, Romney is boxed in politically. Republicans in Congress have so frequently voted to repeal the president’s health care law – the next vote is set for July 11 – in part because they made it a cornerstone of their 2010 campaign.

“If Romney is to win, that's a major part of what he's run on,” the GOP aide said of Romney’s vow to repeal the law. “Despite protestations from Democrats, some of whom will vote for repeal, that A) depoliticizes it, but B) is also part of why he's running.”

But Romney will also have to reckon with the so-called “fiscal cliff” – the cocktail of expiring tax cuts, automated spending cuts and necessary extension of the nation’s debt ceiling – early in his term, unless Congress were to reach a deal in its lame-duck session, an unlikely prospect.

 “You may be critical of Obama – why’d he use up all of his mojo on health care reform?” Kaufman noted. “You’re going to need mojo just to get a debt limit vote and figure out what we’re doing on the Bush tax cut.”

Even after all of this has been addressed, even in the best case scenario for Romney, in which the GOP controls both chambers, he’ll be dealing with a Congress that prides itself on regular order. Romney has prepared few detailed plans or pieces of legislation to drop on Capitol Hill’s doorstep; in fact, when asked earlier this month on CBS about which tax exemptions he’d kill to finance tax reform, Romney said he’d “go through that process with Congress.”

That process can be lengthy, though, and force any president to prioritize agenda items. And congressional Republicans are cognizant of that.

“It's something that could be moved through a process,” the GOP aide said of Romney’s immigration reform plans. “Does it end up at a president's desk? That remains to be seen. Things that are comprehensive take a long time.”

*** Friday’s “Daily Rundown” line-up: Gov. Deval Patrick (D-MA) and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) on the Supreme Court’s ruling… NBC’s David Gregory on the campaign consequences of it all… NBC’s Kerry Sanders with the latest on George Zimmerman’s bond hearing in Florida… More 2012 trail news with NBC’s Tom Brokaw, Demos’ Bob Herbert and the AP’s Beth Fouhy.

*** Friday’s “MSNBC Live with Thomas Roberts” line-up: MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts talks with DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, former RNC Chair Michael Steele, Time magazine’s Michael Crowley, and all four co-hosts of MSNBC’s “The Cycle” -- Steve Kornacki, S.E. Cupp, Krystal Ball & Toure.

*** Friday’s “NOW with Alex Wagner” line-up: Alex Wagner’s guests include “The Newsroom” Creator/Writer Aaron Sorkin, former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D), the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein, USA Today’s Jackie Kucinich, and MSNBC’s Chris Hayes.

*** Friday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” line-up: Chis Cillizza, filling in for NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, interviews NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell and Miguel Almaguer, former Department of Justice Prosecutor David Rivkin, Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens, the Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart and Ruth Marcus, USA Today’s Susan Page, National Journal’s Major Garrett and Medora Works Directors Davy Rothbart and Andrew Cohn.

*** Friday’s “News Nation with Tamron Hall” line-up: MSNBC’s Tamron Hall interviews Newsweek’s Zachary Karabell,  Dem strategist Jimmy Williams,  Natoma Canfield – the woman mention yesterday in Obama’s speech after the healthcare ruling, and Colonel Jack Jacobs on the Stolen Valor ruling.

*** Saturday's and Sunday's "Melissa Harris-Perry" line-up: On Saturday, Melissa Harris-Perry interviews, among others, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, writer Rebecca Traister, and former SC GOP Chair Katon Dawson. On Sunday, she interviews Dem strategist Karen Finney and The Nation's Katrina Vanden Heuvel