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Thursday, September 23, 2010

GOP 'Pledge To America' Looks Unlikely To Inspire

Legend has it that the 1994 Republican "Contract With America" was the centerpiece of the GOP's historic congressional takeover. The reality is a little more complicated. A generational shift of the Democrats' Solid South toward Republicans culminated in 1994 for a number of reasons, among them the usual antipathy toward the president's party in a midterm election. Republicans were well on their way to a rout by the time the contract had been written. And, of course, much of what the contract promised never came to pass. Such is the nature of our separation of powers when there is a president in the opposition party and a virtual supermajority requirement to pass anything in the Senate. But in the world of political analysis, actually accomplishing policy goals is an entirely separate question from whether something is viewed as politically successful. By that measure the contract is considered, perhaps excessively so, as a smashing success.

So, with that in mind, what should voters make of the GOP "Pledge to America" that will be unveiled Thursday? Whereas the contract was mostly procedural, promising such changes as requiring a three-fifths majority to raise taxes, the pledge offers more policy specifics. Some of them, such as an intention to keep the Guantánamo Bay detention facility open, are a bit overly specific and odd. Guantánamo is regarded by experts across the political spectrum as an imperfect solution to the vexing problem of where to keep suspected foreign terrorists. One would hope that keeping people who have been never been convicted of a crime in permanent legal limbo is not something that Republicans, much less swing voters, are actually enthusiastic about.

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8 comments:

  1. The Contract did accomplish its promises, even if some bills failed in votes or fell to presidential vetoes.

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  2. How about your pledge to uphold the United States Constitution?

    Most Americans would be happy if you would simply uphold your original and only significant pledge.

    Criminals!

    Stop acting like you are going to do something new or inventive for we little people. This is outrageous and pompous.

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  3. whats funny is that despite the contract, after 8 years of Rep. rule in congress and 6 of those 8 years of Rep. rule in the White House, we were left on the brink of this recession. Sounds to me like blindly towing the "tax cuts solve everything" mantra is an unsucessful strategy.

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  4. Obama has ruined the country in less than 2 years!

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  5. Yes 6:12, the tail spinning economy that occurred prior to Obama and was set up BEFORE anyone had ever heard of Obama had to be all his fault.

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  6. 7:57 It was set up by the Democrat controlled congress, But what Obama has done is far worse he should have gotten out of the way of Capitalism and we would be in a lot better place.

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  7. 8:58, the general trend among objective economists has been toward agreement that Obama's actions and Bush/Dem's TARP prevented prevented a slide into depression. Sorry Rush didn't educate you on this.

    And the housing bubble and easy credit started way before 2006 buddy. Sorry, wrong again.

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  8. Newt Gingrich needs a new song

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