Republican rallies: long on patriotism, short on policy

[Beet]

LANCASTER, Pennsylvania (AFP) — The stump speeches of John McCain and Sarah Palin are shaping up to be long on patriotism and personality and short on policy as the Republican running mates crisscross battleground states ahead of the November 4 presidential election.

Country first, reform and smaller government are constant themes from the candidates. Chants of "USA! USA!" and "drill baby, drill" are supplied by the crowd.

While the settings vary -- the main street of small towns in Wisconsin and Ohio, baseball stadiums in Missouri and Pennsylvania, an airline hanger in Colorado, an amphitheater in Michigan -- the presence of a massive flag does not.

In New Mexico, the flag even served as a curtain that was raised as the candidates drove into a convention center on McCain's iconic Straight Talk Express campaign bus.

Palin opens her 12 minute speech with a nod to local culture, like the great sports teams in Kansas City, and an introduction of her husband, Todd, a commercial fisherman, union member and champion snow machine racer.

She then describes McCain as principled, independent, courageous and "the only man in this race who's really got what it takes to run this country."

Palin tells voters of how pundits had said last summer the war in Iraq was lost, and McCain's presidential hopes with it, because he refused to "break faith" with the troops "who have brought victory in sight in Iraq."

"The American people understand there is a time for politics and there is a time for leadership. There is a time to campaign and a time to put your country first," she said in Lebanon, Ohio Tuesday.

"And as the mother of one of those troops he's exactly the kind of man I want as commander in chief," she said again in Lancaster, Pennsylvania that evening.

Palin then describes how she took on the special interests, lobbyists and good old boys as governor of Alaska to push through ethics reform, cut taxes and block half a billion dollars in "reckless" spending.

"I reminded people that too often government is not the answer. In fact too often, government is the problem," Palin often says.

And she has put a patriotic spin on the hot-button topic of high fuel prices and energy independence.

"As a matter of national security and for our prosperity we need American energy resources brought to you by American ingenuity and produced by American workers," Palin said in Missouri, repeating the line again and again as she introduced herself to voters.

Palin wraps up the speech with a description of how McCain, a Vietnam war hero who spent five years in the infamous Hanoi Hilton prison camp, is "the only man in this election who has ever really fought for you."

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hlzcayPoIv7m0PxNBTdyRnRCb0dw

[Nym90]

"This election is not about issues"--Rick Davis.

Hey, give them some credit, at least they aren't trying to pretend that they could actually win on the issues.

[Beet]

"This election is not about issues"--Rick Davis.

Hey, give them some credit, at least they aren't trying to pretend that they could actually win on the issues.

Their campaign is an even bigger joke than the Bush 2004 campaign. If the media decides to actually cover what Obama and Biden have been saying on policy McCain-Palin are cookied.

[Nym90]

"This election is not about issues"--Rick Davis.

Hey, give them some credit, at least they aren't trying to pretend that they could actually win on the issues.

Their campaign is an even bigger joke than the Bush 2004 campaign. If the media decides to actually cover what Obama and Biden have been saying on policy McCain-Palin are cookied.

And since they are, as we all know, liberal, I'm sure they'll start doing this any day now, right?

[cinyc]

The war in Iraq isn't an issue?  Offshore drilling isn't an issue?  Energy independence isn't an issue?  Ethics reform isn't an issue?  Taxes aren't an issue?

They may not be the issues the Democrats and AFP want to talk about - but they are issues.

[War on Want]

The war in Iraq isn't an issue?  Offshore drilling isn't an issue?  Energy independence isn't an issue?  Ethics reform isn't an issue?  Taxes aren't an issue?

They may not be the issues the Democrats and AFP want to talk about - but they are issues.

Sure they are issues but McCain doesn't provide any substance and just uses standard Republican attack lines on Obama, which even critize his patriotism and love of country.

[Ban my account ffs!]

I just can't believe they call them "Snow machines" in Alaska.

SnowMOBILE.  Or... here we also just say "sled"

ArcticCat (pronounced "Ard-i-cat the I rhyming with pit) and Polaris are both based in Minnesota... so we're kinda the kings of the snowmobile circuit.

If you say "snow machine" in Minnesota, you're referring to snowmakers that ski resorts use to make artificial snow.

But yeah, I agree with the article.

[J. J.]

The war in Iraq isn't an issue?  Offshore drilling isn't an issue?  Energy independence isn't an issue?  Ethics reform isn't an issue?  Taxes aren't an issue?

They may not be the issues the Democrats and AFP want to talk about - but they are issues.

Sure they are issues but McCain doesn't provide any substance and just uses standard Republican attack lines on Obama, which even critize his patriotism and love of country.

Ah, how?

[Beet]

The war in Iraq isn't an issue?  Offshore drilling isn't an issue?  Energy independence isn't an issue?  Ethics reform isn't an issue?  Taxes aren't an issue?

They may not be the issues the Democrats and AFP want to talk about - but they are issues.

Sure they are issues but McCain doesn't provide any substance and just uses standard Republican attack lines on Obama, which even critize his patriotism and love of country.

Offshore drilling is about to fall off as the House is going to vote it in. The rest is just sloganeering. Except for Iraq, she draws no distinctions with Obama on any of those issues. She presents no facts to back up her case. She mentions no specific Obama policies.

Compare that with a summary of Biden's speech which has a different focus but has many more specifics:
"
DES MOINES ---Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden leveled a blistering critique of GOP nominee John McCain’s economic policies and argued during a campaign stop in Iowa Monday that McCain would offer little change to help struggling Americans.

 Citing the highest unemployment rate in five years, Biden said a lot of people around the country are hurting and blasted McCain and running mate Sarah Palin for what he said was a failure to recognize the problems.

 “If you listened to them at the convention, they made good political speeches but their silence was deafening, deafening, on all the things that matter to the American people,” Biden said.

 What McCain or Pailin didn’t talk about was about health care, helping college students or pensions, Biden said.

 Middle-class Americans are living with a level of anxiety Biden said he hasn’t seen before with the housing crisis, retirement and college tuition costs on their minds.

  He ripped McCain’s plan to tax health care benefits extended to workers, which he called a “bridge to nowhere.”

 Biden said he found it fascinating that McCain and Palin are claiming the mantle of change in this election, when McCain agrees so much with the Bush administration on policy issues.

 “As Barack said, what do they think we are, completely stupid?” Biden said.

 Biden touted running mate Barack Obama’s tax plan, which he said would cut taxes for 95 percent of Americans who draw a paycheck and give middle-class taxpayers three times the amount of tax relief over the McCain-Palin ticket’s plan.

 Republican State Auditor David Vaudt argued that it would take significant revenues in the form of taxes to support Obama’s and Biden’s spending plans.

 “Taxpayers in Iowa and across this nation are going to end up paying for the plans that they have, and politicians are good at making promises but not telling you how they’re going to actually fund those costs,” Vaudt said on a conference call with reporters.

Monday was Biden’s first return trip since Iowa’s presidential caucuses in January, and he referred to the state as his “second political home,” at times stopping during his speech to recognize those he knew in the crowd.
"

Note how the surrogate doesn't mention the project $5 trillion deficit McCain's cuts would create.

[Stranger in a strange land]

"drill baby drill" is an empty slogan. It's not an energy policy. Powering the US with domestic oil is a fantasy, and is never going to happen.

[Reaganfan]

I've been telling you guys. Middle America (Ohio, Missouri, ect) wants simple, straight answers.

Cut taxes for everyone
Kill the terrorists
Shoot, Hunt, Fish and eat Moose Stew
God Bless America

[Keystone Phil]

I've been telling you guys. Middle America (Ohio, Missouri, ect) wants simple, straight answers.

Cut taxes for everyone
Kill the terrorists
Shoot, Hunt, Fish and eat Moose Stew
God Bless America

While that may be a way of describing how things are, you have to admit that that's rather boneheaded, Naso.

That being said, I believe that there are and have actually heard (having attended one of the most recent rallies) policy aside from "Country first, cut taxes and small town values."

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Patriotism lost all of its original meaning.

"This election is not about issues"--Rick Davis.

Hey, give them some credit, at least they aren't trying to pretend that they could actually win on the issues.

Their campaign is an even bigger joke than the Bush 2004 campaign. If the media decides to actually cover what Obama and Biden have been saying on policy McCain-Palin are cookied.

The media will do everything to get their mavericky pal John McCain elected.

[Person Man]

So far, this election has totally dispelled the myth of the Liberal Media. If someone tries to argue that in my presence, they will be beaten.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

So far, this election has totally dispelled the myth of the Liberal Media. If someone tries to argue that in my presence, they will be beaten.

The media likes to keep alive that myth so that people won't realize how right-wing that they are. Of course the media doesn't want to talk about how sh**tty the economy is. They are run by people who are that couple of a percent who would have their taxes raised by Obama. McCain is in their short-term self-interests, and they can't think long-term to realize that everyone loses with another 4 years of the Republican party.

[opebo]

I've been telling you guys. Middle America (Ohio, Missouri, ect) wants simple, straight answers.

Cut taxes for everyone
Kill the terrorists
Shoot, Hunt, Fish and eat Moose Stew
God Bless America

Answers?  To what question are those answers?  'How to continue to get poorer?'

I really think you are a bit off base here, Naso.  Firstly people are beginning to realize that there is no such thing as 'cut taxes for everyone' - they understand that their interests fundamentally diverge from the owners, and that a 'tax cut' for same always means a harm to them.  As for the shooting/hunting/fishing/ et al, really anyone who ever thinks about those things is a dyed in the wool Republican voter.  Most swing voters have never seen a gun or a moose, and certainly don't have time to go into the 'woods'.

You are quite right that phony patriotism, pretense of religiousity, and fictional scares like 'terrorists' have won elections in the past, and continue to be powerful factors, but I do think that you're off base about the tax cut thing.

[NOVA Green]

I've been telling you guys. Middle America (Ohio, Missouri, ect) wants simple, straight answers.

Cut taxes for everyone
Kill the terrorists
Shoot, Hunt, Fish and eat Moose Stew
God Bless America

When I was living in Ohio a little over a decade ago in the early '90s, political attitudes did not seem nearly that simplistic....

#1 Taxes---- Voters in Ohio seemed much more concerned with maintaining good paying jobs in a fairly heavily unionized manufacturing sector while Clinton had just helped push through NAFTA with a Republican majority.

#2 Terrorism---- Not an issue since obviously everyone was against it

#3   Hunting---- Not controversial, although moderate restrictions on assault rifles definitely had a high degree of popular support.

#4    Flags and apple pie---- Not an issue since the Heartlands are one of the most patriotic parts of America.

I really don't see how this simplistic answer describes the complexity of political attitudes inside Ohio. I agree with the basic premise, but most of the people I knew in Ohio didn't see any of the above issues as particularly partisan.

[JSojourner]

The war in Iraq isn't an issue?  Offshore drilling isn't an issue?  Energy independence isn't an issue?  Ethics reform isn't an issue?  Taxes aren't an issue?

They may not be the issues the Democrats and AFP want to talk about - but they are issues.

Sure they are issues but McCain doesn't provide any substance and just uses standard Republican attack lines on Obama, which even critize his patriotism and love of country.

Ah, how?

Saying Barack Obama wants America to fail and wants our troops to be defeated. 

[Lincoln Republican]

People do not go to rallies to be bored with policy discussions.

They go for the excitement and to see and hear the candidates give a rousing stump speech.