It's beginning to sound like the junior Senator from Massachusetts is going to enjoy the convention as much as most of us would a root canal.
U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., is offered an ice cream cone after his tour of the Friendly's plant in Wilbraham on Friday. At left is his wife Gail Huff and Friendly's CEO John M. Maguire. Brown accepted the offer of ice cream, but has declined an offer to speak at the Republican National Convention.Following advice from mothers everywhere not to say anything if you can’t say something nice, U.S. Sen. Scott Brown has politely declined an invitation to speak at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, saying instead that he was going down “just to enjoy.”
Nor is he planning to enjoy the company of his fellow Republicans for very long, adding that he will attend only one day of the four-day convention.
“I have a race to run,” he said.
All of which sounds a bit curious to us since we always figured that the whole point of a convention was for voters to get to know their candidates and help cobble out their parties’ platform.
But that becomes a bit problematic when the candidate is more interested in being seen as an independent than a partisan, and when he finds that he must run away from a good portion of his party’s core beliefs.
For example, the Republican Party platform position calling for a constitutional amendment banning abortion with no exceptions for rape or incest presents a sticky wicket for Brown, who says he respects the pro-choice moderates within the party. Yet rather than trying to present that position on the convention floor, or argue for a change in the platform, Brown said that was “up to others,” since presumably he has a race to win.
It’s beginning to sound like he’s going to enjoy the convention as much as most of us would a root canal.
Certainly the role of political conventions has changed over the years. There was a time when they provided a vigorous forum for the debate of platform positions and when candidates could make themselves known to voters on a national stage.
Yet that seems to be exactly what Scott Brown is disinclined to do.
It will be interesting to see if Elizabeth Warren finds a better use of her time than attending the Democratic National Convention for its entirety and making her positions clear and forcefully during that time.
After all, she has a race to win, too.