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Posted on 10/03/2002 5:55:42 PM PDT by windchime
Bush campaign hammers McBride for lack of specifics, Associated Press, October 3, 2002, by Brendan Farrington
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Ask Bill McBride about what he would do for Florida's schools if elected governor and he'll talk about lowering class sizes, raising teachers' salaries and changing the way statewide tests are used to assess schools.
But when he's been asked about a number of other issues -the environment, law enforcement and growth management - he's often attacked Republican Gov. Jeb Bush's record without providing details about what he would do differently.
The Bush campaign is hammering away at that point, criticizing the Democratic challenger for lacking specifics on major issues.
``His handlers have simply decided that because education is the highest polling issue, that that's all he's going to talk about. That's a gross disservice to the people of Florida,'' Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan said.
McBride's campaign spokesman said the candidate has given specifics on issues other than education during campaign stops leading up to the primary election.
``Just because we don't have something on the Web site or just because it's not in a 90-second sound bite ... doesn't mean McBride doesn't have positions that he's articulated over and over again,'' Alan Stonecipher said.
During the first gubernatorial debate, McBride did not provide details on what he would do, if elected, on several issues.
On a question about what he would do to reform the state's child welfare system, McBride responded ``I would roll up my sleeves and get in there and really provide real leadership.''
On a question on escalating insurance costs, McBride said three times that he would bring people ``to the table'' to discuss the problem and come up with solutions.
On a question about health care for senior citizens, McBride said he would go to Washington and lobby every day for a prescription drug plan proposed by Sen. Bob Graham, D-Florida.
He did not specifically say what he will do in answering any of the questions.
On questions on crime and expanding the economy, McBride steered his response back to his call to improve public schools.
``Clearly he tried to bring everything back to education,'' said Matthew Corrigan, a University of North Florida political scientist. ``I don't think anybody else could watch the debate and know what he was talking about on other issues.''
Brogan described the performance as ``someone who fumbled and bumbled and was engaged in one of the most vague and innocuous discussions I have ever heard.''
``On all these other issues not another word or if it is a word it's a cliche,'' Brogan said. ``'Well I'll roll up my sleeves and we'll get everybody in a room and I'll go to Washington' ... Well that's swell.''
Stonecipher said McBride will be providing more details on non-education issues soon.
``I can assure you in the next short period of time that Bill will talk about several other issues, not only saying what he would do, but saying what he would do to correct the failure of the governor in these areas,'' he said.
Corrigan said the lack of specifics outside of education appears to be a deliberate strategy by McBride and his advisers.
``They are trying to make the campaign revolve around one question - if you're happy about the educational system you can vote for the governor,'' he said.
``Their idea is to get one idea in the minds of voters and stick with that message,'' Corrigan added. ``It's good that you have message control, but in Florida, because you have so many different types of voters, you're going to have to expand your message a little bit.''
Brogan said he and Bush provided specifics on many issues during their 1998 campaign and many eventually become law, including tougher laws on crime, tax breaks and their education plan.
``We laid out and put on the table some of the most specific proposals any campaign has ever provided probably in the history of the state,'' Brogan said. ``I'm not asking him for something that he's not capable of producing. How do I know? Because we produced it in 1998.''
Stonecipher rebuked Brogan over the criticism.
``I don't care much about their whining. We're not asking Frank Brogan to run our campaign for us. We think that Bill can do that very competently himself,'' Stonecipher said.
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Please visit our website at www.jeb.org.
This gets old!
Notice the last line in the above article, even when the Dems. are guilty, they manage to turn it into an attack on us. AP...the most powerfil political organ in the world...and tax free, too.
In the story coming up...the DNC has a cartoom of Pres. Bush pushing a senior over a cliff...and what's the intro from Colmes? "RNC and DNC battle it out.." What? Someone tell me how the RNC and DNC are equivalents here?
I've noticed a characteristic that is present in all female Dem mouthpieces. They speak in a high pitch and NEVER take a breath (in addition to interrupting).
And they glare. They're going to have to learn to share, or they're going to be very, very unhappy in the years to come because our eyes are open and we are not leaving them in charge.
So it wasn't just me....
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