McKinstry: GOP must roll out some details this week

TAMPA -- Talk to any of the delegates roaming the halls of the Hilton Clearwater Beach -- where the New York delegation was holed up yesterday because of Hurricane Isaac -- and you'll hear that they're feeling good this week at the Republican National Convention.

Mitt Romney is poised to win the presidency, they'll tell you. They believe in their guy. It's their time to revel in Republicanism.

But spreading those good feelings and winning over a leery and frustrated American electorate filled with undecided voters will require a clear articulation of how to fix the battered economy and a concrete plan on getting people back to work.

Voters need more than sound bites, attack ads and feel-good speeches -- from both parties. We need less of the trivial, more of the substantive. The details matter.

Making complicated solutions on things like Medicare, Social Security or the tax code comprehensible won't be easy, and there will be many opportunities for the candidates to get knocked off message.

"We've got to stay the course," Rep. Bob Turner, a Republican from Queens, told me shortly after Monday's state delegation breakfast, where New York State Majority Leader Dean Skelos was honored. "We've got to keep focused on the major issues."

If people aren't hearing the message after, say, 99 attempts, then Republicans will need to say it a hundredth time, said Turner, who won a special election in a historically Democratic district.

The winner of this presidential election ought to be the team that engages the public better and doesn't ignore any big issues, like taxes or igniting the economy. Let's hope it's the party that acknowledges what we already know -- and then has a decent and realistic answer for it.

We can take it, really. The last few years have been hard enough. We need substance, and there are only 10 weeks left in this race. Republicans in Tampa say we can expect a rollout of details this week, and that's welcome.

This election reminds some Republicans of 1980, when Ronald Reagan's focus on voters' economic frustrations and other pocketbook issues helped propel him past President Jimmy Carter.

New York State Republican Party chairman Edward Cox and former Sen. Al D'Amato of Long Island -- who won as a long-shot that year -- hammered that point over and over on Tuesday to the New York crowd. The large delegation ate it up over breakfast.

Many Republicans who've come down to Tampa say it's no time to get sidetracked, distracted or caught in the ongoing media storm over abortion and "legitimate rape" brought on by Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.). That's clearly a losing issue for them and no way to court female voters.

"We have to avoid divisive social issues, avoid the issues that pull the party apart," State Sen. Greg Ball (R-Patterson) told me. "We've got to build a big tent."

Polls are showing the president and Romney are all but deadlocked across the country -- if not in New York, where Obama has a handsome lead -- so getting more moderate voters under the GOP tent will be critical.

By Nov. 6, as much as $8 billion could have been spent on this presidential race, much of it in swing states. In New York, we won't be carpet-bombed with the volume of ads voters will see in Ohio, Virginia or Florida. But we'll get our share.

We could use details over the next few weeks, especially so that the moderate middle and the undecideds have a candidate they feel good about. Wouldn't it be nice to know where we're headed so that we can make an intelligent choice in November?

That would take far more than a 24-second television spot.

Gerald McKinstry is a member of the Newsday editorial board.