The guy was emulating the lauded brand of journalism practiced by Mike Wallace and Morely Saefer back in the 70’s, on 60 minutes. Nothing out of the established norms.
Let’s look even another level down. What’s wrong with lobbyists being in a campaign?
Don’t all campaigns (all professional ones) produce white papers from profoundly knowledgeable people on various issues? Aren’t those people often “lobbyists”, with lobbyist being a label for an expert person who advises politicians who are not and cannot be experts on all issues?
Don’t all campaigns take contributions from special interest groups, who are clearly lobbying that politician to be sympathetic to their positions?
In that context, isn’t every single person working on a campaign a lobbyist for his own particular array of desires?
The comments from Romney seemed to be focused on a broad and overarching concept of him being from outside Washington and much more subtly, but certainly real, a very rich man who cannot be bought. If the entire campaign staff is essentially lobbying for their own desires, this is not incompatible with the overarching theme. They would not be on his staff if they didn’t think they shared his perspectives.