Why the GOP has 'given up on the idea of policy proposals'
By Steve Benen Wednesday Apr 30, 2008 1:00pmOnce in a while, I’ll hear some of Barack Obama’s detractors — from both sides — argue that he’s been lax in offering detailing policy proposals. I’ve never entirely understood the line of attack — both the Obama and Clinton campaigns have been extremely forthcoming when it comes to presenting a detailed platform, filled with all kinds of specifics, especially compared to Mr. Vague Generalities.
The real problem, of course, is that it’s the McCain campaign that avoids substance like the plague. We saw this just yesterday when McCain unveiled his healthcare proposal. Asked about those who either can’t afford or can’t qualify for private insurance, McCain proposed that the federal government “work with” states to cover those who would get left behind. What does “work with” mean? No one knows.
This is part of a conspicuous trend. Tyler Cowen, hardly a partisan Dem, noted today:
Trade aside, so far I’ve yet to see many actual policy proposals from the McCain camp. Mostly I’ve seen attempts to signal that they won’t do anything too offensive to the party’s right wing. Very few of these trial balloons seem to be ideas that McCain had expressed much previous loyalty to. I don’t even think we should be analyzing these statements as policy proposals. We should be wondering why the Republican Party has given up on the idea of policy proposals.
Yglesias noted, “[T]he GOP seems to have decided to blow a not-very-appealing idiosyncratic element of George W. Bush’s personality into some kind of principled objection to policy proposals.”
True, but how did we get to this point?
First, it seems McCain, like most of the Republican Party, doesn’t have much of a policy agenda to speak of, so detailed white papers are out of the question. When your platform is more or less limited to “Keep Doing What Bush Has Been Doing,” there’s no real need for 35-page briefing books. Clinton and Obama, in contrast, want to institute rather sweeping changes, so it’s more incumbent on them to talk about how their ideas would work.
Second, McCain is probably convinced that he can get away with a total lack of policy specifics. The media assumes he’s a credible, knowledgeable candidate, by virtue of having served in Congress for more than a quarter-century. (Obama, with less experience, isn’t given the benefit of the doubt, so he faces more pressure to be more specific.) Besides, reporters don’t want to read a bunch of white papers anyway, so they aren’t about to start asking McCain why he doesn’t produce any.
Third, details are risky. The more specifics a candidate offers, the greater the likelihood that the proposal will draw scrutiny. If McCain isn’t getting pressed for details (see Point #2), why bother? To fulfill some obligations as a responsible, 21st-century presidential candidate, ready to deal with complex issues in a serious way? Please.
And fourth, I get the sense that there’s a gap in expectations. Democrats care about how policies work; Republicans care about how policies feel. It’s like Republicans are the Stephen Colbert Party, quite certain there are more nerve endings in their gut than in their brain. If you’ll forgive an obvious over-simplification, rank-and-file Dems demand that their candidates demonstrate a degree of expertise and policy fluency; while rank-and-file Republicans think egg-heads are elitists.
Oh, and the fact that no one seems to like Republican policy ideas might have something to do with it, too.
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In this video, I challenge Christian fundamentalist...
[In this deletion, I tell you your video posting and self promotion are 'off topic.' You may post them on open threads. But no spamming-Sitemonitor]
Maybe the Republican John McCain will "jawbone" the healthcare sheiks? That's what the Republican George aWol Bush promised to do about gas, and we all know it would be a third
turdterm if McSame stole this election.dc madam=dead per cnn
Why doesn't the GOP do us a favor, and slink back into the premortal soup from which they came. They have done absolutely nothing for this country. Quite frankly, they were Hell-bent to destroy it. So GOP, just give up. You will go the way of the Whigs. Good ridance!
...and we'll never hear Russert or Matthews ask, "Where's the beef?"
Did the RNC catch the entire MSM punditry in a "Tailhook" convention. They seem to own these guys. Let Obama OR Clinton say something only slightly less than innocuous or live ten houses away from someone who once got a DUI and it becomes 24/7 coverage until a blond goes missing or a Cuban child floats onto the beach in Florida.
worth repeating...
enjoy
http://bravenewfilms.org/blog/12958-tpmtv-john-mccain-vs-the-video-tape
Whaddya' expect from a party led by such "dinosaurs" as the TaxCutasaurus and NeoConus Armageddonus: http://satiricalpolitical.com/?p=365
yikes @ 3:
Okay let me put on my best Tin Foil Hat.
McCains a client?
Shut UP. Your supposed to be reporting. . .
Ex-nanny countersues Rob Lowe, wife in LA.
Of course they're mum on their "ideas." What are the Republicans going to say? "Please enable another four years of our disastrous policies by voting for Republican John McCain?"
A 72-year-old man with no principles and no ideas. Yeah - he's going to help us solve our problems.
Republicans are like Seinfeld these days . . . a Party about Nothing.
They can't run on the Iraq War. The RNC is screaming red-faced rage at the Democrats pointing out McCain's remarks regarding Iraq. It looks like much of their platform of the 2000's has evaporated due to its toxicity with the electorate.
So this election season, they bring us the Candidate with Nothing to Say. They were hoping for Fred Thompson, but he looked like he was at death's door, so they picked someone slightly less ill but with a certain "charm" to his presence to sell their ongoing agenda of doing absolutely jack shit for the American people.
Yeah, A bunch of old rich white guys running a country that is a so-called melting pot. It amazes me how people vote for these guys time and time again. McCain is to old and fuzzy. Not to mention a temper. God, another four tears of this crap, were screwed.
The candidates are interviewing for a job. We want to know if they have the skills and knowledge to handle the job we are offering them. We especially want someone who we can trust in good times and bad. We want to know how they handle finances, problems, other leaders of other countries, etc.
We don't want a man or woman who says, Well, I would figure out something. Don't worry, my friend.
"Okay let me put on my best Tin Foil Hat.
McCains a client?"
Don't know.
I know at least Republican Senator was a clint though.
BTW you can have my left over tinfoil.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/05/01/dc.madam/index.html
[This is off topic-Sitemonitor]
It's because the GOP have precisely four policies that they apply to every issue, and it's tough to script a 30-minute speech around them without repeating oneself:
1) Steal from the poor.
2) Give to the rich.
3) Kill the brown people.
4) Foul the nest (environment.)
McChimp is the reichwing's newest puppet to be selected into office.
Is McCain going to to stick with the fed policy of renting currency at 6%?
Think about McCain debating Hillary or Obama. Either one will slaughter him. McCain is slow on the up-take. Unless, they have Gibson or Stenopolous(I don't know how to spell that little weasels name) throw softball questions at him. Given MSM performance on almost everything. They'll probably ask about lapel pins and Wright.
New_Damage @ 16:
Whatever it takes to slurp up short term profit.
What a shitty, condescending, rambling, speech. Hey America, stop smoking and your health care problems will be solved. That's so rich. And McFraud, how much did you pay that homeless "brotha" to stand next to you with that "borrowed" suit?
P.D. @ 19:
Wright is just one of many weapons that will be used to bludgeon Obama the well-meaning candidate into submission.
This just in: Thousands of dock workers stay home, West Coast ports shut down
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2008/05/this-just-in-th.html
Everyone knows what McPainfullSwellingandItchofHemorrhoidalTissue policy postions are.
1) Cut taxes for the wealthy.
2) Fuck over the poor.
I'm afraid McCain has been talking about policy, foreign policy which has been described, by one conservative commentator as nothing short of "the most radical idea put forward by a major candidate for the presidency in 25 years."
It has to do with strategy, apparently of the neocon variety, which if carried out could bring back the cold war.
I've been trying for days to get people to look at this article.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/134317
fwacbar @ 24:
3) 100 Years war in the ME
Left&Left, your right. How dare Americans get sick. Meanwhile he's got the best healthcare package in the world that WE pay for. God these guys make me sick. And you know what, seniors will vote for him in record numbers. I mean, they have social security and medicade and the younger generations get squat. Thank you Baby-Boomers for nothing.
P.D. @ 27:
Hey but they brought us tooth whitening, botox, mtv, ms "windows", anything else?
"McCain proposed that the federal government “work with” states to cover those who would get left behind. What does “work with” mean? No one knows."
I think what McCain is saying is that the states will be picking up most, if not all of the bill. That simply will not work since many states are running huge deficits and some, as I have heard are very close to being insolvent. So, much so that several states are having to force retirements, cut pension plans, reduce hiring for non critical areas, and raise state taxes. McCain proposal is to simply pass the costs for those people left behind onto someone else.
I have a feeling McCain got through a lot of his life by telling people what they wanted to hear (aka bullshitting). Now I think that's what he is trying to do with his campaign. Give as few details as possible and that way no one can hold you to anything. He has no details, just wild ideas.
L.A. Confidential @ 28:
Screw you young whippersnappers.
"My Friends, as soon a diebold elects me, then....I will tell you...SOME..of what my plans are...it's for your own good America." (I hate that voice in my head..ukkk)
Joe O. @ 29:
It's all lies and deception. Watch what they do, not what they say.
This is health care advice is coming from a man who has had cradle to grave-
"SOCIALIZED MEDICINE"!
First covered under his father's Navy health care, then as a pilot, then as a VET and now as a Senator.
Talk about being a straight faced liar - he thinks 'market based' health care is good enough for the rest of us. More of continuing the ADVERSARIAL relationship with the people who are motivated not to heal/cure you because it takes away directly from their profits.
It makes him a LIAR because he is smart enough to know the truth yet continues to shill for the Health Care Lobbyists.
miss_kitty @ 31:
Oh and Green! Green Stuff! Green Toothpaste, green light bulbs, green this, green that. . . . and who'd a thought all this was made possible by an oil company?
miss_kitty @ 31:
Yeah, and one day you'll be happy that they brought you Depends. So there! Hey you kids, get off my lawn!
What a mess
pissed off patricia @ 36:
Yeah! Thanks for reminding me. "YOU KIDS!!!! GET OFF MY LAWN!!!!
This story states the obvious, will these Boyz be willing to finance the deluge of US debt coming their way?
May 1 (Bloomberg) — Gulf states are considering dropping their pegs to the dollar after the U.S. currency’s decline stoked inflation across the region, Kuwaiti Finance Minister Mustafa al- Shimali said. “Yes, there are some'’ Gulf Cooperation Council states considering dropping their pegs to the dollar, which has fallen 13 percent against the euro in the last 12 months, al-Shimali said in an interview in Kuwait late yesterday. “Some countries will do what we are doing.'’
I'd like to see a debate with Hillary and McCain. Then I would like to see one with Obama and McCain. I think both debates would be very telling. The repubs might decide they are running the wrong candidate this time.
pissed off patricia @ 40:
Don't get your hopes up on that.
'Iran may get nuke technology this year'
L.A. Confidential @ 41:
They could go back and dust off Huckabee and drag him back on stage. At least he has a personality, such as it is.
L.A. Confidential @ 42:
Having technology and having the ability to make a bomb are two big different things.
pissed off patricia @ 44:
Try explaining that to the Neocons.
Republican voters don't need facts . . . just bumper stickers.
All right, my quote thingy isn't working so I guess I'll have to do the old cut and paste.
miss_kitty @ 31:
"Screw you young whippersnappers."
I heard that phrase many times but never understood what it really ment so I looked it up on the free dictionary. That terms definition describes most Republicans perfectly (from thefreedictionary.com)
whip·per·snap·per (hwpr-snpr, wp-)
n.
A person regarded as insignificant and pretentious.
McCain would probably have to send in a surrogate for the debate.
Another fave move: pass federal law requiring states pay for new fill-in-the-blank.
L.A. Confidential @ 45:
MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — CIA Director Michael Hayden said Wednesday that Iranian policy, at the highest government level, is to help kill Americans in Iraq, the boldest pronouncement of Iranian involvement by a U.S. official to date.
I wonder is this guy suffers from constant itching.
The Repugs know McCain is wrong, but their lust for winning and power makes them weak. They will smear everything and anyone because that is how they think. Look at the hypocrisy of the religous right, Santorum was squealing like a stuck pig when Mccain was sewing up the nomination, and now he is all for McCain, what a tool.
All of McCain's economic policies, if you want to call them that, are nothing more than simple rhetoric. They are devoid of details and are therefore meaningless. The Democratic candidates both have a wide variety of detailed plans. If they are workable or not is another debate but even if taken as is those plans can be changed or altered to fit the current economic situation. McCain can not do that because to do that you have to have a plan(s) to work with in the first place.
In this video, I challenge Christian fundamentalist…
[In this deletion, I tell you your video posting and self promotion are ‘off topic.’ You may post them on open threads. But no spamming-Sitemonitor]
Sorry about that. I'll keep it in mind next time.
Republican’s don’t need no stankin’ policy. Besides, in the neo-con world, policies are like rules (or laws) and are made to be broken. If they don’t get their way, it’s obstruct, obstruct, obstruct. And that, my friends, is all there is to a Republican.
McCain jumps from one side of an issue to the other depending on who is listening.
He will lie, cheat, and steal to get elected. Do not trust McCain because once he is elected he will sell you out!
"Work" with the states is obvious code word. It’s like the current educational system, the system needs x amount of money to actually work well, that x amount means socialism to the right wing, they underfund it, it underperforms, the underperformance is evidence used to back the reasons for not funding it in the first place. All you need is enough ideological “free market” dolts in the government to block any needed funding and you have exactly the situation the right wing wants everyone to be in. No law that guarantees funding over things like building more weapons (which is also a governmental intrusion into the market place, we create an artificial demand for weapons by for profit war industries) will be in place and there will never be enough funding for the programs to perform as needed. How this benefits working class “conservatives” is beyond me, maybe I’m naïve for expecting there to be any logic that makes sense anymore.
The whole point of a presidential system
In a republic, government is literally a "public thing". It's government of, by, and for the people, in which policies are discussed openly and fully before choices are made that all are then responsible for.
We seem to have found all of that too bothersome to deal with, so for the last 60 years, we've replaced it with presidential rule, whereby every 4-8 years we elect a Decider, who makes all the decisions, which the Congress then has the duty to fund.
Maybe platforms and policy stands used to make some real differenece back when we had a republic, but the whole point of abandoning a republic was to get away from all of that. Perhaps some portion of the electorate is soothed by the empty trappings of a republican form of government, so it becomes tactically useful to humor them with occasional vague policy pronouncement, and sound bites and slogans will never go out of fashion. But, really, what's the point of detailed policy proposals if we have a form of govt in which the real deals will all be made behind closed doors by the Decider and his minions? We need to quit calling it "public policy". That adjective no longer applies, and just confuses people.
So republicans have no morals, are hypocrites, have no policies that you can't shoot full of holes, represent only their own interests, right? Then why the hell do 50% of the people vote for them? Logically, that means that the democrats are perceived just as bad!
Explain it to me. I just don't get it.
YourMom @ 56:
God, guns, and gays.
JoeMarasmus @ 1:
Comedy gold.
L.A. Confidential @ 39:
".. And when I get to Dubai I want my Haliburton dividends in Euros, yaaarg!!"
---Dick Cheney
Glen Tomkins @ 55:
winner.
pissed off patricia @ 30:
Blaming smokers (who I believe are declining) and telling people
taking a walk will solve their problems are two excellent examples.
Re Obama — It's not that he doesn't have policy proposals, it's that they haven't been put in the spotlight by his campaign. Sure, they can be found on his web site, or many paragraphs into a news report, but they need to be pushed up into the headlines. (The press, of course will be reluctant to do this in any case, but the Obama campaign needs to keep hammering at it.)
The impression that Obama leaves with many voters, I think, is that he's vague on the issues, offering only abstract promises of hope and reconciliation. This hasn't been helped by the warm and fuzzy ads they've (mostly) been running.
This new Obama ad, which I believe is on the air in the current primary states, is a terrific departure from that. ALL of his ads should follow this template. It clearly says what he stands for, and sets him apart from the bullshit being offered by certain other candidates... not to mention any names.
Why have a policy when McSenileOldMan can't remember what he said 3 days ago? It would just cause confusion and we should just keep the same old policies of endless-meaningless-for-profile war.
Policies? The Rs don't need no stinking policies 'cept fer one -- WAR!
Not to worry....
With his trusted adviser Rasputin Lieberquisling ever at his side, McInsane will be able to weather any policy crises.
Why the GOP has ‘given up on the idea of policy proposals’
goppers are getting leary of all propositions.
The entire republican existence is based on one thing; "do not let the sheeple, who bought all our bullshit on taxes for 30 years - raise taxes now. It has enabled us to steal 25% of the total wealth (in the U.S.) out of the pockets of the very morons who voted for us."
That's why they obstruct everything that is not crony related (like war & oil). That is also why they are so irrationally insane about taxes. New programs for the public good could lead to a possible discussion about revenue, and shhhhhh! - taxing the rich. Can't allow that. Because that is the snake oil they have used to put this country on the brink.
Once the people rediscover the "commongood," and that taxes actually BENEFIT the vast majority of people in this country, the repuke aristocracy will be screwed. They know this is about to happen (just like during FDR's New Deal) and they are terrified!
Bingo! We have a winner... That last sentence says it all... Fact is, in short, it's republican policies of the last 30 years foisted onto the backs of all Americans for the benefit of a well heeled few that is why we are in the shithole we're in today. That's why noone 'seems' (boy, that's an understatement!) to like republican policies... That is why McCain ain't got dick to say about anything specific... He's got nuttin, if anyone would really look at him... He's just trying to schmooze his way in.. Same as it was with Ray-gun, same as it was with old H.W. the elder peckerwood, and as well with Chimpy... Of course it looked like schmoozing wasn't going to get it for the chimpster in 2000, which is why the supremes weighed in undermining the whole freaking process and opening the door for everything we have seen since....I got no use for, or trust in, anything republican nor the freaking supreme court either! That court as currently constituted is a mockery of justice!... And I 'thank' the republicans for making it that way. Undermining our judicial system.. Just another institution these republican cretins have worked hard to screw up or outright destroy.... Fucking shit up is pretty much what they do best....pretty much the only thing they do really...............JD
This is because fucking the American public in the ass cannot be called a policy proposal.
This is a comment about mental health benefits and verbal abuse. John meCain called Cindy a what?
Oh, and I am an insurance agency owner with 22 employees so I know what I'm talking about. We need a single payer system. None of the candidates has a workable solution, McCain is the worst. By offering a tax credit and a state pool and eliminating the tax deduction for group premium: No employers will decide to take out coverage if they do not have it now since it will cost too much, and as some small business' go out of business the number of employers offering coverage will shrink, employees who have a member of their family who are sick will have a question put to them "do you want to keep your job, or do you want to go into the state pool for coverage at $25,000 per year (but hey, you get a $5,000 tax credit). Hillary wants a manditory requirement that people have health insurance, but in all states there is a requirement that people take out auto liabilty insurance. Do you know anyone that does not have liability coverage, of course they walk into my agency every day needing coverage to get their plates. Obama wants to make it affordable, but when you are loosing your house and your car is repo'd you are not going to be shopping for affordable health insurance. Single payer through taxes is the only way to go to cover everone and it will also make American products more competative. If you can move to Canada you should.
Ginger Oaks @ 72,
I never thought I would say this, but after 8 years of these fascist, aristocratic moron's, I have been entertaining the thought of Canada.
However, I think I will wait until they dump their Lil' Bush - Mr. Harper.
My problem is that Obama supporters are qhostly quiet when I ask them what Obama meant when he claimed, in many speeches and in the last debate, that JFK, George HW Bush and Ronald Reagan were good foreign policy models.
Does he not remember the October Surprise, Iran/Contra, Lebanon, the Panama Invasion, arming Al Queda with 10,000 Stinger missiles, the BCCI scandal, illegal weapons sales to Saddam Hussein, illegal weapons sales to Iran - and on and on.
Either Barack was too young and naive to understand the enormity of those foreign policy mistakes, or he really thinks that a privately militarized-corporate sponsored interference into other countrys' affairs is the right kind of foreign policy. Maybe that is why he said that he would "unilaterally invade Pakistan if he has actionable intelligence on Al Queda". That statement could have come from the mouth of George Dubya.
Would a kind Obama supporter please address this issue?
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