As Zell Miller, the Democrat senator from Georgia, has said, Kerry and Edwards have combined the foreign policy of George McGovern with the tax-increase policy of Walter Mondale and the tariff policies of Herbert Hoover. It is also particularly interesting that in 2004, with national headlines reporting on Iraq on a daily basis, that Kerry's closest advisers - and Kerry himself - appear incapable of defining their policy position on the future of Iraq.

Kerry-Edwards believe the answers to most of the problems facing our country reside in new or existing government programs, whether the issue is jobs, health care or retirement security. In fact, Kerry claims he's going to "create" 10 million new jobs with tax increases, which will result in slower growth; protectionism, which will result in less trade; nationalizing health care, which will only make the current situation worse; and by doing nothing with regard to Social Security, which will consign near and future retirees to less retirement savings and continued dependence on the government. They are wrong on all counts.

Besides, President Bush has a good record to run on - the strongest economic recovery in 20 years, no terror attacks on our soil since 9/11 and a vision of the future recognizing the importance of national security including the reconstruction of Iraq and the need to complete the transformation to an ownership society at home.

That said, the GOP has got to have a big idea in 2004 such as Ronald Reagan had in 1980. I think personal retirement accounts could be for George W. Bush what the Kemp-Roth tax-rate reductions were for Reagan, if not bigger. That time is ripe, but we desperately need presidential leadership if real reform is to happen.

Meanwhile, the Kerry-Edwards ticket is embracing Al Gore's "the people versus the powerful" slogan by co-opting the Edwards mantra of "two Americas." The GOP should go out and campaign on a vision that is optimistic, forward-looking and inclusive of the entire nation. In the process, they should engage Edwards to defend his version of class warfare, envy and political division.

Republicans can do this by pursuing a growth agenda and embracing personal retirement accounts as a means of reforming Social Security for the 21st century, by making permanent the 2001-2003 tax-rate reductions and reforming the alternative minimum tax, by aggressively advocating free trade, by embracing an urban-renewal agenda such as Enterprise Zones of Choice, and by advancing a region-wide Marshall Plan for Central Asia and the Middle East.
These are big ideas that can rally a nation to aim higher and achieve great things.