Show Us The Shining City On The Hill
By Michael Reagan
February 8, 2008
Thanks to Mitt Romney, John McCain has all but wrapped up his party's presidential nomination.
So where does the Republican Party stand at this point in a crucial election year? Well, consider that none of the potential nominees of the party -- except maybe McCain to some extent -- has ever gone out and helped any Republican get elected to anything.
Now that he's suspended his campaign and is out of the race, if Mitt Romney still wants to be president of the United States someday let him call me up and I'll give him the road map he needs to follow to become the GOP nominee in another year.
As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, the three men have all been working from the top down and not from the bottom up. As a result, the voters -- the grass roots -- are all over the landscape, and the primary results showed there's no real consensus. They were with Huckabee, they were with Mitt Romney, they were with McCain, and some were with Ron Paul.
Mitt Romney didn't do anything to gain the trust of the base, while McCain -- who hasn't yet won the trust of the base -- is a familiar old face.
The bottom line here is that John McCain had better start giving better speeches and tell us what his vision is for America, and how he plans to get us there, and how he needs our help. If he needs any pointers how to do that -- how to electrify an audience -- he should watch a few of Barack Obama's speeches.
If I'm going to vote for someone solely on the basis of what they say when speaking to the voters, Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama will get my vote. At least they have a message and a direction. That direction may take me over a cliff, but at least they're telling me where they want to take me, where the Republicans haven't shown me a single road map.
You haven't heard McCain spell out the kind of future he wants to create, or give us any idea of how he means to get there. One of the main issues in this election year is the widespread belief among the voters that America is adrift in a sea of uncertainty and utterly without direction.
Yet none of the three Republican candidates gave any indication as to how they would steer the ship of state. Voters haven't heard a word from them about an issue at the top of their concerns.
All three have been so afraid of talking about George Bush that they seem to be afraid of talking about anything that really matters to the voters. All they spent their time talking about was "vote for me because I'm better than the others," and that doesn't win elections.
Elections are won by those who have plans and ideas, and have the ability to put those plans and ideas into words that not only explain the plans and ideas, but inspire the voters as well.
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