Clipping blog |
| Herman Cain The Happy Warrior and Me Posted: 15 Oct 2011 07:00 AM PDT
I had a chance to talk with Cain for a few minutes several months ago, not long after he declared himself a candidate. In that conversation, I suggested that he harness his optimism and faith in Americans to solve their own problems to set himself apart from the other candidates. I was convinced then that voters are hungry for a candidate whose love for this country and trust in them propels their campaign and I told him so. We talked about how Reagan had those qualities, how President Obama does not, and how I believed an earnest and determined positive message coupled with concrete plans for the future could capture the public’s imagination. He liked what I had to say and told me he’d give it some real thought. Not long after that, the “feel” of his campaign message changed so that his sunny optimism played a far more prominent role in his speeches and television appearances. Now, I can’t say for certain that our conversation led directly to what we’ve seen from Cain the past few months. Cain is indeed a happy warrior and I can’t imagine that his campaign would turn nasty, even in desperation. He doesn’t strike me as that sort of man. I do think, though, that I put into words something he knew but hadn’t turned into a concrete strategy (and, believe me, optimism in an election is a strategy that requires effort). If that’s the case, then I’m pretty darned happy, because the decision to run a campaign of unrelenting optimism with a message that boils down to “America, you can recover” has made him the front-runner and could well put him in the White House.  |
| The Perry Plan: A Good, Long, Low-Hanging Start Posted: 15 Oct 2011 06:30 AM PDT
1) I liked the plan when it was called “Drill, Baby, Drill!”. I liked it even more when it was called “Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less.” This is not quite as large a knock on Perry as it might sound. He’s spent his life in Texas politics so of course he’s going to come out with a plan that addresses oil drilling and the EPA regulations that currently menace energy production in his state. Every candidate plays to their strength. Mitt Romney is a bureaucrat through and through, so his plan is large and ridiculously detailed. Herman Cain is a big-concept retail guy so his plan is broadly-appealing, easy to remember, and has a snappy name. Perry’s plan reflects what he knows best and he’s wise to pick the low-hanging fruit early. He will have to give us more though and soon. 2) The plan is several few thousands words and at least a dozen pictures longer than it needs to be. “Drill more and regulate less” is not a new or particularly complicated concept to explain in detail. Any blogger could have written a decent 1,500 word post with just as much detail and your rear end wouldn’t have gone numb reading it. I keep hearing that he has smart people behind him in his campaign, but this plan doesn’t exactly prove it. Yes, it’s good. We need to use our own natural energy resources, and the EPA is way out of control, but a smart group of advisers would have gotten a good writer to make those points concisely. 3) For all the words in his plan, he neglected to include the words “more domestic drilling means lower gasoline prices”. Heck, we know the very announcement that we would increase domestic gasoline production caused gas prices to drop almost a dollar in the Bush administration. How does that point, which has history behind it, not make a fleeting appearance in this monster of a plan? He did well to note that eliminating punitive EPA regulations would bring down the cost of electricity; he should have done the same for gas prices. It would be a simple and effective way to make his plan personal to each voter and would give him an easy talking point for interviews and debates. 4) Perry has taken a strategic approach to economic growth similar to the one Herman Cain took with his 9-9-9 plan in that he’s not attacking the whole economy in one big gulp like Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman tried to do. The problem with a one-shot comprehensive plan is that it has to be big, too big for voters to digest easily and far too big for any campaign to explain fully. It makes a lot more sense to do what Cain and Perry have done, which is to break up your overall plan into sections that address one part of the problem at a time. Cain chose tax reform; Perry chose energy. Both will have a positive effect on employment, but we won’t know exactly how that will work until other parts of their plans click into place. For what it covers, Perry’s plan is good. It could stand alongside Cain’s 9-9-9 plan (oh won’t that make Perry’s fans happy!), or augment a later spending plan without any real problem. It would get at least one industry moving forward again and, I suspect, drop gas prices by at least a dollar a gallon very quickly. He really does need to thin it down  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from The Sundries Shack To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar