The GOP's Obama Moment
After watching almost all of the Democratic convention last month, I reflected on what the GOP would need to do this week to make up ground. Turns out of course, that there was no bounce to speak of coming out of the convention, and Kerry began to slide in the polls as the Swift Boat Vets came into the spotlight. Still, parts of their convention were very effective, and I must simply be grateful that virtually no one watched. If I didn't know John Kerry, and wasn't cognizant of the ideas behind the Democratic PR facade, Barak Obama would have convinced me to pull the "D" lever on Nov. 2 (whether the "lever" or some other post-Florida contraption, you catch my drift).
He was captivating. Thrilling. He captured exactly what it means to be an American. To say he appealed to the middle is an understatement. He appealed to the right. Too bad there's nothing in the Democratic platform to back him up.
So what to do this week? Make a pitch to appeal to the middle-left? "We're really not as conservative as they make us out to be!" In seeing the lineup of moderates speaking this week, it appeared that's the route the RNC chose.
That's not how it's playing out. What I believe we have lacked, for several years now, is a hard-nosed defense of conservatism in general, and the Bush Administration policies in particular. If John McCain had come up and talked about how Republicans are for campaign-finance reform and Rudy Giuliani had made pro-gay remarks, then the "pandering to the middle" charge would be accurate. Instead both spoke almost exclusively on the war on terror, and did so in a way that was unabashedly pro-Bush, and damning to Kerry's "nuanced" positions.
But the man who has given the most unapologetic, appealing speech on conservatism was a man who few people had even heard of before, Lt. Gov. Michael Steele of Maryland. He didn't try to appeal to the middle by trying list liberal positions Republicans have taken. He didn't say "We're like you," he said "here what we are, and why we are that way. Aren't you really one of us?"
In two sentences he both dismissed the "returning to the Jim Crowe era" accusations of Democrats and took a jab at the estate tax: "What truly defines the civil rights challenge today isn't whether you can get a seat at the lunch counter. It's whether you can own that lunch counter in order to create legacy wealth for your children."
He gave a laundry list of positions Kerry has taken that are even to the left of mainstream Democrats. A particularly great jab at Kerry: "He also recently said that he doesn't want to use the word 'war' to describe our efforts to fight terrorism. Well, I don't want to use the words "Commander-in-Chief" to describe John Kerry."
Steele ended his speech with a summation of what it is to be a conservative, originally uttered by Lincoln himself:
Steele had exactly the right message, the right charisma, and the right credentials to convince a certain segment of fence-sitters that they belonged on our side all along. Pity no one watched.
He was captivating. Thrilling. He captured exactly what it means to be an American. To say he appealed to the middle is an understatement. He appealed to the right. Too bad there's nothing in the Democratic platform to back him up.
So what to do this week? Make a pitch to appeal to the middle-left? "We're really not as conservative as they make us out to be!" In seeing the lineup of moderates speaking this week, it appeared that's the route the RNC chose.
That's not how it's playing out. What I believe we have lacked, for several years now, is a hard-nosed defense of conservatism in general, and the Bush Administration policies in particular. If John McCain had come up and talked about how Republicans are for campaign-finance reform and Rudy Giuliani had made pro-gay remarks, then the "pandering to the middle" charge would be accurate. Instead both spoke almost exclusively on the war on terror, and did so in a way that was unabashedly pro-Bush, and damning to Kerry's "nuanced" positions.
But the man who has given the most unapologetic, appealing speech on conservatism was a man who few people had even heard of before, Lt. Gov. Michael Steele of Maryland. He didn't try to appeal to the middle by trying list liberal positions Republicans have taken. He didn't say "We're like you," he said "here what we are, and why we are that way. Aren't you really one of us?"
In two sentences he both dismissed the "returning to the Jim Crowe era" accusations of Democrats and took a jab at the estate tax: "What truly defines the civil rights challenge today isn't whether you can get a seat at the lunch counter. It's whether you can own that lunch counter in order to create legacy wealth for your children."
He gave a laundry list of positions Kerry has taken that are even to the left of mainstream Democrats. A particularly great jab at Kerry: "He also recently said that he doesn't want to use the word 'war' to describe our efforts to fight terrorism. Well, I don't want to use the words "Commander-in-Chief" to describe John Kerry."
Steele ended his speech with a summation of what it is to be a conservative, originally uttered by Lincoln himself:
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by encouraging class hatred. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and incentive. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they should do for themselves.
Steele had exactly the right message, the right charisma, and the right credentials to convince a certain segment of fence-sitters that they belonged on our side all along. Pity no one watched.