{"id":16624,"date":"2008-08-18T09:00:39","date_gmt":"2008-08-18T13:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/16590.html"},"modified":"2008-08-18T09:00:39","modified_gmt":"2008-08-18T13:00:39","slug":"the-dearth-of-new-big-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/the-dearth-of-new-big-ideas\/","title":{"rendered":"The dearth of ‘new big ideas’"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have to assume the McCain campaign helps prepare its surrogates before they appear on the talking-head shows. And yet, it’s amazing how unprepared they are<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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For those who can’t watch clips online, NBC’s David Gregory, guest-hosting “Meet the Press,” asked Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), “You’ve talked about the crisis within the Republican Party, that it lost its way, that it used to be the party of big ideas. And now you back Senator McCain. What’s the big idea Senator McCain is campaigning on?” Jindal responded, “I think there’s several<\/a>,” and proceeded to talk about McCain’s energy policy.<\/p>\n

Gregory added, “But those were Bush-Cheney big ideas in 2000. Where are the new big ideas of the Republican Party that John McCain is, is championing?” Jindal was sharp enough to keep talking, but never even tried to answer the question.<\/p>\n

Under the circumstances, I’m sympathetic to Jindal’s problem — McCain isn’t offering any “new big ideas”; he’s offering more of the old ones. Now, one could make the argument that McCain doesn’t need<\/i> new ideas, because he’ll do such a good job following through on the Bush\/Cheney agenda. In fact, I’d be delighted to hear campaign surrogates make this point.<\/p>\n

But Jindal said McCain has “several” new big ideas, but couldn’t actually name any. And if Jindal, a potential McCain running mate, can’t think of one, it’s probably safe to say voters won’t be able to <\/p>\n

Buy Clomid Without Prescription <\/a><\/p>\n

, either.
\n
\nI’d just add that Jindal’s awkward response keeps up an impressive streak of McCain surrogates struggling with basic questions.<\/p>\n

A couple of weeks ago, Mitt Romney was asked to name a single bill John McCain has produced in 26 years on energy independence. Romney drew a blank<\/a>, adding, “I’m not a historian.”<\/p>\n

A month ago, Gov. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) was asked to identify differences between McCain and Bush on the economy. Sanford hemmed and hawed for quite a while<\/a>. “Yes. I mean, for instance, take, you know — take, for instance, the issue of — I’m drawing a blank, and I hate it when I do that, particularly on television,” he said.<\/p>\n

In June, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) was asked to name a difference between McCain and Bush on domestic policy, and couldn’t think of anything<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In May, Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the second highest-ranking Republican in the House, was asked to name a difference between McCain and Bush on economic policy, and he couldn\u2019t come up with one<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It’s quite a team they’ve assembled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have to assume the McCain campaign helps prepare its surrogates before they appear on the talking-head shows. And yet, it’s amazing how unprepared they are. For those who can’t watch clips online, NBC’s David Gregory, guest-hosting “Meet the Press,” asked Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), “You’ve talked about the crisis within the Republican Party, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16624\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}