Howard Kurtz: How can Romney face Putin if he's afraid of Whoopi?

After Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's campaign announced on Monday that the candidate had canceled his Thursday appearance on ABC's The View, media critic Howard Kurtz wondered how the former Massachusetts governor could stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin if he couldn't even take questions from Whoopi Goldberg.

"Governor Romney was supposed to be on with us this Thursday with Ann Romney," co-host Barbara Walters explained on Monday's show. "We were looking forward to it. Over the weekend, his people said that he had scheduling problems and would not be coming on with us, nor at this point did he feel that he could reschedule."

"Apparently the idea of sitting next to Whoopi Goldberg was just a little too intimidating," Kurtz told Daily Download founder Lauren Ashburn. "Doesn't this make Romney look like he's avoiding a confrontation with the ladies of The View? He said he would go."

In a secretly-recorded video released by Mother Jones last month, Romney told wealthy donors that going on The View was a "high-risk" proposition because the "sharp-tongued" co-hosts were not conservative enough.

After that the Republican candidate had also insulted 47 percent of American as "dependent upon government" in that same video, Goldberg ranted on Twitter that Romney had "flushed his ideals down the drain" and "sheds ideas faster than a snake sheds skin."

"It opens him up to the argument that, how is he going to negotiate with Vladimir Putin if he's afraid of sitting down with Whoopi Goldberg?" Kurtz pointed out on Monday. "When he agreed to go on, he was down in the polls. And now: Bye, bye, Barbara."

Watch this video from Daily Download, broadcast Oct. 15, 2012.