Now That The Lights Are Darkened...

Now that the lights are dark in Denver and St. Paul, and the rented set pieces have been returned (in spite of Sarah Palin's snide remark about the DNC, the RNC rented just as much), now that the delegates have gone home, and the party elected officials, bigwigs and celebrities (I'm looking at you, Guiliani) have dispersed, after the press and the professional protest groups are gone, the real campaign begins.

So what did we learn from the rhetoric? We learned that both parties want to be seen as the party that will bring change to Washington. That's good news: most Americans think that the way the federal government works has to change.

But what did they tell us was going to change?

Barack Obama wants to provide health care for all Americans, a change he sees will have a positive ripple affect on all aspects of American life. He wants to focus on providing decent education for every American, which he sees having a positive ripple affect on the economy by training every American to be highly productive, and reducing unemployment and poverty. Of course, he was short on details.

John McCain wants us to keep in mind his reputation as a maverick, and someone who for years has been fighting against the way things are done in Washington. He sees this as having a positive ripple effect on how the Congress creates legislation, which will in turn have a positive ripple effect on many aspects of the nation. His focus seemed to be on getting government out of the way of people so they can succeed on their own. Not surprisingly, he, too, was short on details.

Now, obviously, during a speech designed to be reasonably short and to inspire, details take too long. But it is important to remember: For all the rhetoric both candidates provide, both candidates are tied to the platforms their respective parties crafted to reflect the goals and desires of the membership.

So it is important to read the DNC platform and the RNC platform to see what the candidates are pledged to do when they are elected. A candidate's rhetoric will not always reflect the platform. But since the candidate generally has quite a bit of influence on the platform, looking beyond the rhetoric to the "nuts and bolts" of the campaign is a good way to gauge which candidate reflects our idea of "change."

From my perspective, the Republicans has an uphill battle. Although they argue that the Democrats have controlled the Senate and House for the past couple of years, they seem to avoid mentioning that for the previous six years they controlled both the Congress and the presidency. The platform does not reflect much of a change from the Republican agenda from the past eight years.

The Democrats will have a little easier time of it -- Americans generally see change as a change in party control of the White House. But the Democrats need to convince Americans that they have specific, practical, workable ideas to support their rhetoric.

Rhetoric is easy; work is hard.