While Sam Brownback is a good speaker, his seemed to be trying to touch as many bases as possible, flitting from the war on terror to a flat tax to to ending cancer (huh?) to gay marriage to abortion to energy independence. (The energy stuff was the usual replace-oil-with-corn pipedream; I’m not sure why he didn’t retool his speech for a non-Iowa audience.) Far better to get a little deeper on a few big themes than to skate over the surface of so many little ones. ~John Tabin

What, no Darfur references?  I’m disappointed in Samnesty. 

I certainly share Mr. Tabin’s puzzlement with Brownback’s “end cancer in ten years” preoccupation.  Even when you remember that he had a cancer scare himself and became a strong advocate for research and treatment, it is still fairly bizarre in its way, yet it is one of the items that crops up in his major speeches with remarkable frequency.  In principle, reducing deaths from cancer and increased research and improved treatment are all things that reasonable people can and, I think, do support pretty much wholeheartedly, but “ending all deaths from cancer in ten years” is the essence of an unrealistic, absurd political proposal.  It is unfortunately rather typical of Brownback’s overall style–he wants to show that he cares so much that he will make the most outlandish proposals to demonstrate the extent of his concern.

The scatter-brained approach to policy speeches seems to be a Brownback favourite.  His announcement speech was very much like this one, at least from what I can glean from Mr. Tabin’s description.

Update: Ed Morrisey has items from Brownback’s speech.  Brownback felt the need to repeat his idiotic “yellow brick road to the White House” line.  Ross, if you have any influence with this guy and can persuade him to stop using this phrase, all political observers everywhere will be grateful to you.  Morrisey remarks on the end of the speech:

Wrapping up; he says in answer to “why us, why now?”, “Because … it is your destiny.” In my mind, it instantly recalled Darth Vader trying to convince Luke to switch to the Dark Side.

The phrase does have that association (it also comes just after he has sliced off Luke’s hand, which makes it even more menacing), but I will say that I think Darth Vader might be a bit of a harsh comparison for Brownback.  Even so, beware politicians who talk about destiny, whether theirs, yours or, worst of all, “ours.”  They have a funny way of compelling people to go to other countries to get into wars to fulfill that “destiny,” and it usually doesn’t end well.  The idealist’s talk of destiny winds up creating a very different destiny for the country that follows said politician than it would have otherwise had, and not in a good way.