Washington ( CNN ) -- Call me crazy , but I recall when presidential candidates ran for the high office because they had things to say . The notion went like this : I have ideas that I think will be great for the country . I have thought about them , vetted them with experts , spoken about them throughout my career . I have refined them , many times , even changed some . And now I think it 's time to run for the presidency , armed with those ideas to present to the nation . So imagine my surprise when , at a recent debate , Texas Gov . Rick Perry turned to Mitt Romney and , with a certain amount of disdain , sniffed , `` Mitt has had six years to be working on a plan . I have been in this for about eight weeks . '' In other words , I 'll get back to you . So , is it really a bad thing that Romney spent years working on ideas -- changing some , obviously -- to prepare for another presidential run ? Or is it actually worse that Perry first had a team of consultants and strategists , and then got to work on the ideas part of the program ? Ronald Reagan did n't have to cram a belief system into a new 10-point plan to save the country , because he knew what he believed -- and refined and road-tested his plans -- before he ran . Neither did Bill Clinton , who did have a 'Putting People First ' plan , which contained ideas on welfare reform and education that he had spoken about for years . Both men had beliefs -- and of course , ambition -- before they had presidential campaigns . How quaint . This time the process is oddly perverse . A large chunk of the Republican party base is looking for a candidate to fill their own belief system : fiscal and social conservative , tough on immigration , tax-cutter , and on and on . They could go with Romney -- and probably will , in the end -- but they 're skeptical about his bona fides . They did n't like him last time around , and they 're afraid to like him this time . So they 're auditioning . The tea party activists have become the GOP 's theatrical directors . Michele Bachmann played well in Philly , but never made it to Broadway . Perry looked right for the part , but blew his lines . And Herman Cain , well , he 's very entertaining . They 're looking for the sort of artistic perfection which , as we have all learned , is not necessarily a presidential trait . They like Cain 's 9-9-9 tax plan , but he 's too unreliable on the abortion issue . They may like Perry 's new optional flat tax , but cringe at his more liberal views on immigration that allow the children of illegal immigrants to get in-state tuition in Texas . And what about Bachmann claiming , without any proof , that the HPV vaccine can cause mental retardation ? Not exactly a presidential move . When Perry entered the race as the fave du jour , it was n't because of his specific ideas , or his specific record , or his specific abilities : It was because the GOP base had a slot to fill , and they thought he was the guy to fill it . He was conservative , after all . Then he appeared on stage , and somehow appeared smaller than the role demanded . He began the campaign with an energy plan -- predictable from the governor of Texas . But when pressed for more , he finally delivered a flat tax -- an updated version of the Steve Forbes flat tax that never quite caught on enough to get him nominated when he ran in 1996 . It 's an idea Perry has always said he liked , but now he apparently owns it , having cooked up his own version on the fly . There 's a strange whiff here of back-of-the-envelope campaigns . Cain has a tax plan that catapulted him to the lead , then Perry tries out another catchy plan to regain the lead . `` It 's a gimmick in response to a gimmick , '' says Vin Weber , a Romney adviser . So could it be that Romney 's problem is that he is n't gimmicky enough for these tryouts ? He 's got a serious , boring , 59-point ( how un-gimmicky is that ? ) plan for the economy that does not include a silver bullet to fix all . He does not believe there is one . Yet if you asked Romney to recite all 59 points , I bet he could do it . I bet he has actually thought a great deal about each one . As he learned the hard way the last time around , presidential politics is a different kind of drama : You ca n't win the lead by reading other people 's lines . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Gloria Borger .
Borger : Traditionally presidents have run for office based on long-held beliefs . She says candidates such as Rick Perry are running first , putting out plans later . Comment: Borger : She says Romney developed ideas before he started his campaign .