Michael Steele speaks but doesn't say much (Second Opinion | Baltimore Sun)

[struggle4progress]

Michael Steele gave a much anticipated speech Tuesday afternoon in which he was expected to reboot his chairmanship of the Republican National Committee, and perhaps the party itself. He promised the that "the era of apology for Republican mistakes of the past is officially over," declared that "we're going to take the president head-on" and boasted that the Republican comeback is already under way.

But, speaking to state GOP chairmen at the National Harbor development in Prince George's County, he failed to reach beyond tired party platitudes to any sort of actual road map for Republicans to dig themselves out of the electoral hole in which they find themselves.

He pledged that the GOP would, once again, be the party of ideas, but he failed to mention any. He said the times are grave -- "This is serious; families are suffering and businesses are closing" -- and argued repeatedly that Obama was making them worse by ramping up federal spending. What the Republicans would do instead to help those families and businesses, he didn't say. Steele at one moment criticized Obama as the most partisan president in memory and in the next promised that "the two-party system is making a comeback, and that comeback starts today" -- implying what? That partisanship is OK as long as it's your partisans doing it? ...

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/2009/05/michael_steele_speaks_but_does.html