Guess whom the national media is down on because he is inaccessible to them? Michael Calderone, writing today in Huffington Post, says Romney hasn’t met with national political reporters since the summer of 2010:

The Romney campaign, running this cycle from a frontrunner position, has scaled back on the candidate’s accessibility from four years ago and rarely allows for such unguarded moments on the campaign trail. While Romney has taken the stage for primetime debates and has done a few cable news hits, he’s avoided lengthy interviews with magazines to which he spoke in 2008 — such as Time and Newsweek — and hasn’t appeared on any of the Sunday morning chat shows, a traditional pit stop for any presidential contender.

On Sunday, Fox News host Chris Wallace called attention to Romney’s absence from “Fox News Sunday” and his competitors’ programs.

“With Governor Perry’s appearance, we have now interviewed all of the major Republican candidates in our 2012 one-on-one series except Mitt Romney,” Wallace said. “He’s not appeared on this program or any Sunday talk show since March of 2010. We invited Governor Mitt Romney again this week, but his campaign says he’s still not ready to sit down for an interview.”

Romney’s lack of availability is a page from the Rick Perry playbook in his race against Bill White. It worked for Perry, of course, but Romney is another matter. Perry had a safe lead throughout the race. Romney is the frontrunner, but “uneasy lies the crown.” He is going to have to deal with his flip-flops sooner or later, maybe as soon as the Michigan debate. He is showing signs of strain, as when he recently reversed himself on climate change. Romney is predisposed to tell people what they want to hear. Most politicians are–but most aren’t serial flip-floppers.