What would make the D&C editorial board happy?
Seriously - did you see the op-ed on Obama this past weekend? Read it. With passages like this it is easy to get confused whether the Op-ed Editors at the D&C believe Obama is just vision, no specifics.
Instead, Obama should take that uplifting message of change that he used so brilliantly during the primary season and attach specifics to it. He should present detailed positions of a kind and to a degree that has eluded him during the campaign season thus far.
[snip]
A good deal of this has been thought through by the Obama team, and is available on his Web site. But to many independent voters, Obama remains a man of vague platitudes. His acceptance speech represents a chance to fill in the silhouette.
Um, are two sides of the mouth moving here James Lawrence D&C Op-ed Editor?
We leap from
“He should present detailed positions of a kind and to a degree that has eluded him during the campaign season thus far.”
to
A good deal of this has been thought through by the Obama team, and is available on his Web site
Why not simply say something like - vision and details are on Obama’s website but his acceptance speech provides a grand opportunity to connect with these independent voters. If you can, watch Obama’s speech on Thursday and McCain’s speech the following week and decide.
Instead the editorial page plays into the meme that Obama hasn’t a provided specifics.
Want specifics? As Lawrence suggests, check out Obama’s web site and discover Obama’s positions on Defense where he points out it is more than weapons systems. It is looking at the entire system - alliances negotiation and, of course, military power. Economy? Oh, there is a page on that as well - Social Security? Yep, there is a plan there as well.
And why is vision considered bad? Vision doesn’t require minute detail. It provides direction.
Vision is the sextant by which we guide our implementation.
In Obama’s case he provides vision and details. Voters have to watch and Newspapers have to report and Op-ed editors need to, well, stop trying to have it both ways.
If people believe he hasn’t provided specifics, it’s because the press:
A - doesn’t report them;
B - dumbs them down so they sound like platitudes instead of policy and/or:
C - buys the McCain/Rove nonsense and doesn’t bother to examine the facts behind the falsehoods.
[...] D&C editorial board tries to write Obama’s Thursday’s acceptance night speech. Louis in the comments has the right [...]