<$BlogRSDUrl$>

My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2005-04-20

Looking For A Common Theme

What do these four stories have in common?

--support for President Bush's plan to overhaul Social Security seems to be waning, even though there is some evidence that the idea of private accounts in general terms garners substantial support

--Sen George Voinovich (OH) wandered off the reservation yesterday, forcing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to postpone a vote on the nomination of John Bolto to be Ambassador to the UN. His confirmation has been dogged by largely unsubstantiated allegations of being mean to people

--As Dick Morris wrote about today, the public is not exactly rallying to the support of the GOP when it comes to asking for a straight up or down vote on the President's Judicial Appointments. What seems to be a fairly easy case to make has been successfully redefined by Democrats, and up til now the GOP has been unable to clearly articulate their case for breaking the filibuster.

--the Energy Bill that the President proposed three years ago is still languishing in Congress, though the House has managed to pass it. Key features of this plan are drilling in ANWAR and the barely-reported increase in federal dollars for alternative energy research.

And, just for a more personal touch, throw in the whole Tom Delay fiasco.

Give up?? Anyone? What these four stories have in common.

Okay, here it is: look close enough at every one of these stories, and somewhere in the subtext is the idea that the GOP is either wholly incompetent at, or is getting badly outmaneuvered at the public relations aspect of public policy creation and holding party discipline. All four of these people/ideas are solid ones, ones that are common sense and could do some genuine good in the long run. But none of them can get passed without the perception of public support, and NOBODY in the GOP has shown the ability to go dirctly to the people and make a good case.

Sure, sure, the MSM gets in the way a bit, but not to a degree that would explain the current situation. My thinking is, and I blogged on this once before, that ever since Karen Hughes left the White House, the message has been very muddled and often incoherent. It's time to get some more help in the GOP bullpen to start to dig these ideas out of the trash can.
Posted by: Michael / 4/20/2005 11:33:00 PM

Weblog Commenting by HaloScan.com

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?