The Republican Priorities: What The GOP Focused On (And Ignored) During The Convention

Now that the Republican National Convention is over it has become quite evident to me that the McCain campaign had done everything in it's power to try and distant it's self form the Bush administration. President Bush spoke only briefly via satellite and Dick Cheney wasn't anywhere near Minnesota, his name wasn't even mention by any one of the speakers that addresses the convention.

Instead of ideas on how to lead the Country into the future all we heard were ideas from the past, no new ideas about the economy, healthcare, social security or energy. All we heard about was the same old, tired and failed policies of the last 8 years.

War and terrorism, with little mention of diplomacy was the main message people have walked away from this convention with.

ThinkProgress.org has put together an analysis based on the prepared remarks (a total of 38,055 words) of the convention speakers, looking at how many times Republicans said various words. A glimpse at conservatives’ priorities:

Bush Administration
Bush: 1
Cheney: 0
Gonzales: 0
Rumsfeld: 0
National Security
War/Wars: 38
Surge: 14
Nuclear Weapons: 4
Diplomat(ic)/Diplomacy: 3
Torture (McCain’s): 3
Guantanamo: 1
Osama Bin Laden: 1
Afghanistan: 0
Torture (not McCain’s): 0

Economy
Jobs: 36
Economy: 27
Middle Class: 2
Housing: 1
Social Security: 1
Unemployment: 1

Other
POW: 14
Maverick: 11
Hockey Mom: 5
Tyrannosaurus: 1
Elvis: 1

Health Care
Health Care: 26
Medicare: 1
Medicaid: 1
Environment/Energy
Drill/Drilling: 18
Nuclear (Power): 10
Clean Coal: 7
Environment: 7
Gustav: 6
Climate Change: 1
Global Warming: 1
Green Economy: 1
Katrina: 0

Science
Technology: 13
Internet: 1
Science: 1

Civil Rights
Immigration: 5
Gay/Gays: 0