POLICIES? WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN' POLICIES! The last two months or so have seen a great deal of debate over the policy differences, or lack thereof, between the major Democratic candidates. We've had learned analysis of the various Democrats' health care plans, poverty strategies, and, most recently, approaches to terrorism. Only now are the major media outlets starting to admit the democrats have concrete ideas. For example, Obama, we're told, only recently started to show some substance. Yet, by this standard, every major Republican candidate is about as substantial as tissue paper in a tornado. I'm not the first to notice this, but I was still taken aback by just how little Republicans seem to care about even appearing as if they have any ideas when I started poking around their websites.
Start with foreign policy, the subject of recent nuanced debate between major Democratic candidates. Mitt Romney does not mention the word "Iraq" anywhere on his issues page. A search of his whole site reveals that the most recent document containing the word is a June 16th press release attacking Harry Reid. The foreign policy section is titled "combatting jihadism" and discusses nothing but Iran. Rudy Guiliani's entire section on foreign policy is two short paragraphs completely devoid of any actual positions except an opposition to "timetables."
On health care, Guiliani's non-plan was ably demolished by Ezra in today's web magazine. Romney's position, in its entirety, is that "the health of our nation can be improved by extending health insurance to all Americans, not through a government program or new taxes, but through market reforms." John McCain doesn't mention health care anywhere on his issues page and a search of his site produces no actual positions on the issue. Needless to say, none of the candidates mention poverty, either. Fred Thompson doesn't have any issue positions at all, though he hasn't actually announced he's running yet.
Kevin Drum recently observed that "Giuliani might be the first presidential candidate ever whose entire candidacy is based literally on optics and nothing else. I don't think he's offered one single substantive proposal in the entire time since he announced his candidacy." Actually, by Republican standards, he's not half bad! We can only hope this encourages Newt Gingrich to throw his hat in. More seriously, it's shameful that the media goes on and on about substance on the Democratic side while completely ignoring the absolute lack of it amongst Republicans.
--Sam Boyd
