Where Have All the Issues Gone?

This week I’m pulling some interesting numbers from a Feb. 28 Pew poll on the candidates’ images. Polls can be overwhelming, and there are significant clusters of people who don’t believe in their accuracy, or simply consider them meaningless. What I find of interest, however, is the illustration of American fickleness that polls give us. Polls also give us things to lodge in the backs of our minds when reading news stories.

A majority of voters, 56 percent, say that Obama has not provided enough information about his policies and plans for the country. Only 28 percent of voters said the same for Clinton.

These are curious numbers. The Issues section of Obama’s website is very detailed. There are 20 specific issue sections that can be easily downloaded as the “Blueprint for Change.” For each of those 20 issues, Obama gives specific actions he would want to implement if elected. There are still plenty of vague statements and woe-is-America lines, but most of them are accompanied by details.

Clinton’s Issues section, on the other hand – which has 14 segments – is compiled of more ambiguous titles, so you aren’t entirely sure what you are going to get when you click on a heading. For example, “Restoring America’s Standing in the World,” leads you to some vague statements about peace and reform. Most sections give specific policy proposals, while the rest only offer her beliefs and references to past actions.

So, are they not talking, is the news not reporting, or are we not listening? Out of curiosity, although I don't know how relevant this is, I took a quick look back at Washington Post articles written about these candidates since Feb. 1st. I found specific (i.e. mentioned in headline) policy-related articles on the following:

For Obama: 6 stories on Iraq, 2 on foreign policy, 2 on the economy, 2 on NAFTA, 1 on Israel, 1 on parenting tips (ha), 1 on union aid, 1 on Cuba, 1 on bilingual education, 1 on the tax code and 1 on abortion.

For Clinton: 5 stories on Iraq, 4 on the economy, 2 on foreign policy, 2 on health care, 2 on NAFTA, 1 on poverty, 1 on Cuba and 1 on immigration

Don’t forget, some of these stories are details from the debates or are rebuttals to attacks from other candidates, while others are transcripts of Q&A sessions; very few are straight issue news stories.

It’s a vicious cycle. If candidates talk too much about specific issues, voters might get bored, tune out or just forget what was said. But it seems that they can talk about other things too much, too. The question is, if half of the electorate thinks Obama doesn’t discuss policies enough, what would they say he IS talking about?