With the pledge to America, the Republican Party showed the just don’t get it. The pledge is essentially Bush lite. Not the beer, but the former President.
The theory seems to be why go long when you think you are leading by a big margin going into the November elections.
Like me, you have probably filled out one or more questionnaires to t he RNC. As a former marketing executive, I know what you get from these data. It’s only as good as the questions. Someone else did a poll published this week that shows over 70% of Republicans identify with the Tea Party. The remaining 30% must have been those in office or working for those in office.
Here’s my read on the “Pledge”. It’s designed to be middle of the road. They know a vast majority of Americans want more. But, they are scared to death they will lose the Independents if they go past the middle of the road. Roll back expenses to the 2009 level. That’s the peak of the Bush spending spree. It’s not nearly as far as most of us are expecting them to go. Repeal Obamacare? Sure, how do they do that with the Obama veto? Smaller government? How much smaller if you just go to 2009. Read bills before you pass them? How nice.
This pledge shows just how out of step the Michael Steele led Republican Party is with the people.
I’m optimistic about November, but not optimistic about the Republican Party. They leadership void is very apparent with the “Pledge”. When it was introduced at the press conference it was introduced with lots of meaningless words and little real information about the meat of the pledge. We get that with Obama, we don’t need it with McCarty and the other architects of the pledge.
You have a Republican candidate for Governor in NY who vows to take a baseball bat to Albany. You have a Governor in NJ who is taking a bat to the state. But, in Washington, you have leaders who still see the tool to be a scalpel.
It falls far short of what most of us hoped for from the party.
The Republican Party was on life support in the fall of 2008. With Obama providing the fuel, it has been restored. But, the leaders are short on courage and vision. They may still give the Democrats enough oxygen to recover. The party needs new blood and needs it quickly.
