Skip to footer

Speaker John Boehner pledges offensive drive for House seats

Speaker John Boehner outlines strategy for gaining a bigger House majority for GOP: keep on the offense. And if Obama wins? If required, Boehner says, he can find 'common ground' with him.

|
Sarah Beth Glicksteen/Special to The Christian Science Monitor
House Speaker John Boehner (R) of Ohio speaks at a Monitor-hosted lunch at Roy's Restaurant in Tampa, Fla., on Aug. 27.
  • By David Cook Staff writer

| Tampa, Fla.

Elected speaker in January 2011, Rep. John Boehner (R) of Ohio is the highest-ranking Republican in Washington. He was the guest at a Monitor-hosted lunch at the Republican National Convention on Aug. 27.

The need to revamp political conventions:

"These are very expensive propositions to put on.... [Given] the way [people] get their news, I'm not sure that having a four-day convention for the future makes a lot of sense."

The role of party platforms:

"Have you ever met anybody who has read the party platform? I've not ever met anybody. It ought to be on one sheet of paper.... That way Americans could actually read it."

The GOP's need to appeal more to nonwhite voters:

"It's important for our party, if we're going to be a national party. We've got to reach out. And that means showing up in their neighborhoods. It's a tall order, but it can be done."

His role in the 2012 House elections:

"My goal is [to] gain seats.... I'm going to keep our team on offense all the way through Election Day."

If President Obama is reelected:

"I have no doubt that, if required, I can find common ground with the president.... I never give up on the president regardless of who is occupying that office."

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Speaker John Boehner pledges offensive drive for House seats
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/monitor_breakfast/2012/0904/Speaker-John-Boehner-pledges-offensive-drive-for-House-seats
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe