Conservatives worry Romney's agenda is too vague
AP Photo/Al Behrman
(CBS News) Amid growing conventional wisdom that, following the Republican and Democratic conventions, President Obama has bolstered his slight edge against Mitt Romney, conservatives this week are calling on the Republican candidate to share more of his policy agenda.
Conservative columnist John Podhoretz of the New York Post boiled down the general complaint to this: "Romney & Co. are wrong if they think negative feelings toward Obama are sufficient to motivate their voters. These people would like very much to believe in their candidate."
Romney, Podhoretz argues, needs to excite his supporters with superficial moments like spirited speeches or strong interviews. On top of that, he should offer up substantive policy agendas.
"The Romney camp is doing neither. It's too intent on winning over the small batch of uncommitted and independent voters by saying absolutely nothing that might possibly offend them," Podhoretz laments.
In an open letter to Romney in the conservative Weekly Standard, businessman Peter Hansen suggests Romney could erase Mr. Obama's advantage with "more detailed discussions of policies you would enact."
He adds, "The assertion that you are more competent than President Obama strikes many people as merely that--an assertion."
Bill Kristol in the Weekly Standard chastises both Mr. Obama and Romney for a lack of substance in their convention speeches but warns Romney has more to lose by ignoring policy details.
"Mitt Romney in particular will have to speak up," he writes. "When a challenger merely appeals to disappointment with the incumbent and tries to reassure voters he's not too bad an alternative, that isn't generally a formula for victory. Mike Dukakis lost."
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The Wall Street Journal's editorial board this week specifically took issue with the way Romney has handled discussing health care policy. The Journal's editorial board expressed exasperation with Romney's acknowledgement Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he approves of some of Mr. Obama's health care reforms.
"The GOP standard-bearer made his own policy sound worse than it is," the Journal wrote. "Mr. Romney's pre-existing political calculation seems to be that he can win the election without having to explain the economic moment or even his own policies. As this flap shows, such vagueness carries its own political risks."
Meanwhile, William McGurn, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, took to the Journal's op-ed pages to complain about Romney's vague policy proposals with respect to the war in Afghanistan.
"Whatever the reason, even after Mr. Obama's surge forces return home, America will have 68,000 men and women in uniform there. Mr. Romney's reluctance to outline a thoughtful policy on Afghanistan does not make it go away," he wrote. "If Mr. Romney wants to be America's commander in chief, he ought to start presenting himself as one."
This line of criticism from prominent conservatives is nothing new. In July, many of the same pundits and others said that if Romney were more specific about his plans, he could better defend himself against attacks from the Obama campaign.
"There's a general sense on the right that a more substantive campaign would be better," National Review editor Rich Lowry said at the time.
Meantime, the Romney campaign has countered this week that it has a better vision and a better record than the president, in addition to a cash advantage and enthusiasm among conservative voters.
"The reality of the Obama economy will reassert itself as the ultimate downfall of the Obama Presidency, and Mitt Romney will win this race," Romney campaign pollster Neil Newhouse wrote in a memo Monday.
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Why will anyone in their right mind vote for them? They are banking on the ignorance of their base, as well as those republicans whose hate for Obama is greater than their love for the country. These GOP's will rather do anything to defeat Obama, than do what is right for our country.
Why do rep voters think they will do anything good just for THEM?
They want to bust dems but how will they pick and choose so a rep doesn't get busted too?
Are there NO poor reps? ....NO middle class reps?
...Stupid, just stupid.
Now they are trying to elect the most heartless, cult following, pseudo-Christian Republican President, in the history of the United States. It is the shameless worshiping of Mammon in the name of Jesus.
For a true Christian to vote for a man, that thinks so little of the true message of The Bible that he would induce modifications to the Word of God to the clear advantage of WHITE MEN in their society, is the equivalent of voting for the same types of people that crucified The Savior.
I was fooled into voting for Reagan, because if conservatives were REALLY conservatives, capitolism would be all they clam to dream of. Instead they did exactly as I feared and abused deregulation and robbied the American working middle-class before anyone had a chance to know what was happening.
The Republican/Tea Party/KKK coalition, that are doing their level best to buy and/or sell The American Dream, will one day sooner or later, wish they had not decieved the American voters and squandered their chance at making America the leader of the free world that She could be.
3000 years of human history says that the American people will rise up against the conservative oppression and greed of the wealthy, that don't appreciate the gift of true freedom guarded by the very people being oppressed and exploited.
I wish every day that the human animal will evolve to the point of asking;"what can we do as the leader of the free world, to make things better for ALL OF HUMANITY?".
As long as the Beck Babblers, Rushbots, and the pseudo-Christian Tea Party Republicans, are spreading their thought cancer with lies, misinformation, and an unlimited amount of cash from souless corporations, so they can implement the financial inslavement of American workers with price fixing and unregulated invasion of personal privacy.
No drinking, no tobacco, no illegal drugs, no opinions expressed in public, no vacations, no time with family, no way for a family to survive without both parents working full time, no control over even having a job unless you cowtow down to any demand they make, because they own you just as if you were in iron chains.
The American working class is now being viewed by the greedy GOP in the same light as the Native Americans were in the 19th Century. We are in the way of the rich getting richer and must be eliminated at any cost of human misery.
OBAMA 2012!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Send the Romney Zombies back to the grave of the Confederacy.
This really isn't even a contest! To vote for the Republican alternative signals that the majority of Americans have lost their minds.