Republican National Convention - Day 1
Thursday, January 25, 2007(The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation)
Republican National Convention - Day 1
Guest: Richard C. Harwood, Special to
MSNBC
MSNBC-Will: Ok guys, I have the
guest Rich Harwood on the line, and I have a
healthy list of questions, so let's get
started.
MSNBC-Will: Welcome Mr.
Harwood!
Rich_Harwood: It's good to be
here, I'm looking forward to our
conversation.
ASKMSNBC: tweety-guest
says: Mr Harwood, exactly what is the Harwood
institute
Rich_Harwood: I started this
organization about a dozen years ago, with the
idea that this country can do better, that we
are driven too often by mean-spirited public
discourse, by institutions that we know longer
trust, by the belief that the consumer reigns,
and that there is not a lot of room for us to
think and act as citizens, that we tend to
cover the news in ways that sensationalizes
events, and misses the point about which we
need to know. And so what we are interested in
doing, which follows a long history, and a long
tradition in American history, to be a catalyst
for how we chart a different course for
America's public life and politics. We work on
how to reconnect communities and schools, we
work on the political conduct of candidates,
the news media, and citizens, we work on how
communities can regrow themselves, and we work
on how the news media plays a role in
society.
MSNBC-Will:
Rich_Harwood: It has the
potential to follow recent history, which is
that we hear lots of good rhetoric, lots of
promises, and what we find over time is that
the campaign degenerates into finger-pointing
and name calling, and it becomes more about
pulling down your opponent, than putting forth
a vision and ideas for the
country.
ASKMSNBC: tweety-guest says: Mr
Harwood, I have a theory that polls are many
times scuewed because union voters will answer
questions as a democrat in a poll because they
are worried about retrobution, I belonged to a
Ntl Union for 30 years, what do you
think?
ASKMSNBC: kellie-guest says: Are
polls accurately reflecting the attitudes of
America? Are there "holes" in the results that
the polls show?
Rich_Harwood: I think
polls can be very misleading. They tend to
elicit from people very superficial responses,
we tend to ask questions that fragment our
concerns, we take a single question and pretend
to know how people feel about a range of issues
that affect their daily lives, for instance,
education, simply because someone says they are
for standards for schools, we make all sorts of
assumptions about what we believe they feel
needs to be done for public schools in America
today. We tend to use polling results to
fragment and divide people, one camp against
another, instead of looking for what people
hold in common, I think we need to be very
careful about how we use polls and how we read
them, not only in campaigns, but in the rest of
the year.
ASKMSNBC: StormyMS1 says: Do
you think political conventions have outlived
their usefullness? Will future party candidates
be pre-determined long before the conventions
as they were this year?
Rich_Harwood:
No, not really. I think there are lots of
people that are lamenting the fact that there
are no controversies or tensions at these
conventions, but this is the one moment
throughout the campaign where America will get
a glimpse of both Mr. Bush and Mr. Gore, and to
see what they are really about. The question
is, to what extent will they reveal their whole
views of what needs to happen in this country,
and to what extent will they live by what they
say at these conventions throughout the
remainder of the campaign, and so these
conventions can serve as a touchstone for
Americans in these elections, about the
character of these candidates, because will
these conventions simply be an infomercial that
we run today and forget tomorrow, or will they
have some staying power, which I happen to
believe will tell as much about the candidates
themselves, so I don't think they have outlived
their usefulness.
MSNBC-Will:
MSNBC-Will: Are they just
infomercials?
Rich_Harwood: Well, I
think these conventions can be telling in who
these conventions choose to speak for them,
what themes or issues the candidates seem to
drum home over the four days and nights, how
the candidates deal with other leading
officials in their parties, and again, I think
they can provide a touchstone that we can go
back to over time, when the going gets rough in
campaigns, because it will get rough, to what
extent these candidates stayed by their word,
and persist in their message, and tell us in
ways about whether they believed what they said
back in July and August. I think the naivetÈ
comes in with respect to the candidates and
their handlers, which is that Americans will
not remember what they said and will not care
what they said back in July and August, I think
in this campaign, people will care, because
there are only so many things we can look to,
to get some sense of who these leading
candidates are, and finally, because I believe
character is so important in this race, the
test of character is only over time, and these
campaigns provide a starting point for that
time, or at least the newest starting point
that we have.
ASKMSNBC: Hagen-guest
says: We middle American's support Geo W. Bush
100% . Why does the media want to get Gore
in?
Rich_Harwood: I think media coverage
goes in cycles, and there have been times
throughout this campaign when Gore has received
the wrath of the media, and Bush has been seen
in more favorable light, and vice-versa. I
don't think that the media has it "in" for
either of these guys, I think what they have it
"in" for is to pull down whoever the
front-runner is, because they believe it makes
more interesting, more scintillating, more
sensational news media coverage. But I think
what's most important in this race and in other
political races, and to some this may sound
naive as well, is that Americans need not just
to watch the news media in order to make up
their minds on these candidates, they need to
look at a whole range of sources of
information, and we need to talk to one another
about what we think about the candidates, so we
can make up our own minds on who to vote
for.
ASKMSNBC: guest-reded says: Why
aren't educators held responsible about the
product they produce?
Rich_Harwood: I
would put "product" in quotes here. I think
most Americans believe that we need to hold
educators accountable for the kinds of
students, the kind of people, the kind of
citizens they product. I don't think of that as
a product, but I think of that as educating an
individual, and I think from our work, at
least, one of the problems we have is that we
talk about our children like we do Coca-Cola,
or Pepsi, that they are products. They are
something to be nurtured, I don't think they
are something to be produced. That said, I
think one of the groups we need to start
thinking more about in terms of accountability
is ourselves and our communities. Schools are
not the only place where we educate our
children, and schools are not the only place
that CAN educate our children. No school can
read to a child at 8:30 at night, no school can
make sure that a young child has magazines in
his or her house that they can flip through
even before they can read, which we know helps
determine how well that person can read later,
no school by itself can determine how we want
to spend our public dollars, in terms of
whether we value all children's education,
whether we believe that the resources we have
are enough, or not, about whether civic and
state based organizations are going to do their
part. Education is a good example of what these
campaigns have the opportunity to address.
Based on all of our research and projects
across the country on education, people are not
looking for slogans, and empty rhetoric, and
huge promises, from their leaders on education
issues, what we find they are looking for is a
conversation about the different elements that
are needed to insure that our children receive
the education they need. And that would be a
very different conversation from the one we
typically hear, especially in Presidential
campaigns.
MSNBC-Will:
Rich_Harwood: I think time
will tell. Now, Governor Bush has the
opportunity to put himself forth in a national
way, as opposed to an individual's state
primaries, and to demonstrate his character and
his beliefs in the rough and tumble of a
Presidential race. He's the Republican
candidate, for good or for bad, and time will
tell whether he can withstand the pressure that
will be put on him, and to what extent he can
take a stand, and articulate what he truly
believes in.
ASKMSNBC: GOP_GUY-guest
says: rich........why all the focus on
education.....when the vast proportion of
education spending and decision making is done
at the local level?????
Rich_Harwood:
That may be true; a great deal of control does
exist at the local level, and I believe many
Americans want to keep it there. I think the
reason that education is so important for a
Presidential candidate to speak to is because
education represents for so many Americans the
continuity between their pasts, the present,
and our future. After all, we are talking about
educating children about our
history,
MSNBC-Will: by the way guys,
I'm the one who asked him the education
questions, so I don't want anyone to think that
Rich is focusing on education
himself.
Rich_Harwood: and also for them
to be good citizens and providers in the
future. I think education in it's root is a
proxy for larger issues about the nation, and
how we want to treat our children, and the
value on which we place preparing for the
future. I think it also represents how a
candidate thinks about the distribution of
power between the federal governments, state
governments, and local governments. Which
provides an important window into the
candidate's thinking. The unfortunate part is
that most candidates believe because of the
importance of this issue, that they have to
roll out slogans, and promises, and great
expectations, many of which they can't really
control from the White House. And that
undermines people's faith in the candidates,
and ultimately in our ability to
govern.
ASKMSNBC: guest-wanda says: Do
you think that criticism of Laura Bush will be
bad, if she doesn't shine
tonight?????
Rich_Harwood: I think the
pressure on Laura Bush is to be herself. I
think she falls into the trap of politics as
usual, which is all show and little substance,
if she tries to be more than who she is, if she
tries to be the "Knightress" on the white
horse, the First Lady who is going to resolve
all the nation's problems, the woman who will
tend to the nation's fears and concerns at
every turn. Presumably, Mrs. Bush has something
to say, I think she ought to say it, she ought
to be straight about it, she ought not pretend
she is something she is not, and I think she
wins if she comes off as being real and just
the person that she is, and nothing more and
nothing less. That's a very good
question.
MSNBC-Will:
MSNBC-Will:
Is she immune to criticism? I don't think Mrs.
Bush is immune to criticism. If she simply
stands up and gives the nation a list of
platitudes, and seeks to ingratiate herself
with the American public, and seeks to paint
her husband as some perfect person who has come
to lead the nation into the future. I think
she'll be taken, I hope she'll be taken at her
word, if she simply makes a good honest speech,
talks about her concerns about education and
children, and I hope that she's not judged in
sheer political terms about her technique, or
that she's a ruse for something that the Bush
campaign is trying to say implicitly, or
between the lines to the American public. After
all, she is the nominees wife, you will see a
lot of her, and we ought to begin that process
tonight, I don't see any reason for dreaming up
all sorts of analyses of the implicit messages
she is sending us.
ASKMSNBC:
kellie-guest says: Are we seeing a shift in the
average age of voters? There has been a lot of
campaigning over recent years aimed at the
youth vote... is it working? Rich_Harwood: I
don't know in terms of voting trends the extent
to which it is working. Overall the voting
patterns of young voters in this country is
that something is still wildly off in their
connection to politics and I think what's
wildly off is this: mainstream politicians and
the news media continue to want to play
politics as usual, which is often a form of
slash and burn politics. What we find from many
younger folks in this country is that they
feel, what we hear about them, when they don't
vote that they are apathetic about politics, I
think their voting patterns illustrate
something different, which is a total disgust
from politics as usual. In fact, volunteerism
and community action is high, very high, among
young folks in the country, which suggests that
they care deeply, at least as a group, about
the country and it's future. What they feel
disconnected from is the politics that we often
see practiced in this country, so I think
you'll see younger folks return to the voting
booths, when politics itself redeems itself in
terms of providing meaning in the public
world.
ASKMSNBC: Moving_ON_1-guest says:
Do you think Bush is moving to the Center with
the Term Compassionate
Conservative
Rich_Harwood: I think what
George Bush is hitting on with "Compassionate
Conservativism" actually goes to a lot of
issues we hear in our work that Americans are
concerned about. For instance, how are we going
to treat people that don't have the resources
that others have? What is the role of having
our borders opened to immigration and to what
extent? What does it mean to educate all
children, including those that come from broken
families, and have the least amount of
resources at home, and also at their schools?
The other side that the Governor is hitting on
with this phrase is that people do not believe,
by and large, that government has ALL of the
answers to these and other dilemmas, and that
we as a society, not just government, but we as
individuals, as neighbors, as parts of civic
groups and faith based groups, must play a
role. Now, the dilemma for Mr. Bush, and
therefore for our nation in this campaign, is
whether or not this is just a phrase that was
identified in a focus group or poll which I
believe would then be manipulative, in a sense,
or, is it something that he truly believes, and
will be a common thread throughout this
campaign. Going back to the person who asked
about Mr. Bush running on the coattails of his
father, I said I believed we would find that
out through the test of time, one of the tests
will be the extent to which Bush stands by this
notion of Compassionate Conservatism, can
articulate what he means by it, can translate
it into policies and other proposals, and will
stand by it when he starts to get pummelled, by
the press, by his opponent, and by others who
want to take shots at him. Then we will see if
there's any meaning to the term, and we'll also
better understand Mr. Bush's
character.
MSNBC-Will: Ok, we have to
wrap up today's chat with Mr. Harwood here, but
we'll see him again tomorrow at the same
time.
MSNBC-Will: Thank you very much
Mr. Harwood for taking this time with
us.
MSNBC-Will: Anything we should look
for tonight?
Rich_Harwood: I would look
forward tonight to the extent to which Laura
Bush and Colin Powell truly speak to people
about their concerns. Or seem to be reading
speeches constructed in a focus group with
voters, so to push as many of our emotional
buttons as possible.
MSNBC-Will: Ok
Thanks very much Mr. Harwood. For those of you
whose questions we didn't get to, don't fret!
We'll be chatting in a couple hours with Mickey
Kaus, and we'll carry over some of the
questions we didn't get to here. Also, John
Hockenberry is sitting right next to me looking
at chat, so he'll be pulling from this same
list tonight as well. So use that ASK box at
the top of the room!