On to the Next Step
Based on the approving comments we received yesterday regarding our draft of five policy questions — and an overwhelming lack of disagreement about those questions — we have now moved on to the second step; namely, posing these questions to the presidential candidates.
A friend and former colleague who worked on Senator Kerry’s campaign in 2004 and served previously in the Clinton Administration has offered to help with outreach to key staffers on the campaigns of the D’s. She warns that, while some will certainly be willing to respond, we may not get immediate answers. Excerpting from her email …
“One delay you may run into is that Presidential campaigns are just establishing their policy structure and are reluctant to respond back in writing on issues that will put them ‘on the record,’ especially since they haven’t completely worked through their ‘presidential policy process.’ I know that seems weird since most of these people are currently elected officials with a history on most of the issues covered (in your list) – it’s just how the beast works.”
Learn something new every day, I guess.
I also have a few contacts on the R side that I’ll start reaching out to, but if any TMV contributors, editors, or readers have good R connections, let me know; we’d welcome the assistance.
(Odd, isn’t it, that as a former R, I actually have better contacts with the D’s? It’s like college all over again. An English lit major, I tended to hang out primarily with engineers and physicists. Of course, back then, we had a common language: beer. Can’t say the same today.)
3 Responses to “On to the Next Step”
Well I’m pretty impressed this seems to be going forward like this. Here’s hoping we hear back sooner rather than later.
[...] As we warned in our last post on this topic, we may be in this for the long haul. Some candidates aren’t comfortable committing to specific policy statements until they have an official “policy structure” in place for their campaigns. In the words of my former colleague who is helping us with outreach to the Dem’s, “that seems weird since most of these people are currently elected officials with a history on most of the issues covered (in your list) – (but) it’s just how the beast works.â€? That could mean weeks or months; it all depends on the individual candidates, their campaign resources, etc. At the very least, we’ll attempt to secure a preliminary indication from each about when they think they’ll be prepared to respond. [...]
[...] to our inquiries, Dr. Paul will likewise be one of the first candidates featured in our upcoming, long-in-development Q&A [...]