The Republicans’ “Pledge to America” unveiled last week reflects the difficulty in the transition the GOP hopes to make in the November elections — from the minority party in Congress to more equal footing with Democrats, if not the outright majority.

One line of thought holds that Democrats are sinking fast enough on their own, so let them. Just get out of the way and let the weight of their Big Government policies, propounded during nearly four years controlling Congress and nearly two years running everything in Washington, do its thing.

The other argument is that Republicans, in asking Americans to hand them congressional control, or at least a piece of it, must say what they would do with that control. The GOP fell short the last time it was in charge, so it’s obligated to detail how things would be different if given another shot.

Thus, the document Republicans produced last week walks a narrow line. It’s not a campaign platform or a legislative blueprint. It’s more a statement of philosophical conviction and direction — one that mostly succeeds in assuring voters that Republicans have heard their demand for a stop to the Democrats’ agenda of increased spending, higher taxes and expansion of federal reach into their everyday lives.

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Click here to read the Pledge yourself.

While 2010 is shaping up as the year of the conviction politician, the election is also throwing up candidates running on little more than their personal sense of entitlement. On that score, Lisa Murkowski is giving Florida’s Charlie Crist a run for his money.

On Friday, Ms. Murkowski let it be known that she would conduct a write-in campaign for the Alaskan Senate seat against Joe Miller, the tea party favorite who toppled her fair and square in the Republican primary last month. Senate incumbents are always hard to beat, especially in a state like Alaska that has long rewarded seniority, and we assume voters understood the choice.

Though Ms. Murkowski heavily outspent the West Point grad, decorated veteran and federal magistrate, she said over the weekend on CNN that Mr. Miller had only prevailed because of “lies and fabrications and mischaracterization.” She then denounced the “pretty radical things” that the Republican nominee supposedly supports, including “You know, we dump Social Security. No more Medicare. Let’s get rid of the Department of Education. Elimination of all earmarks. You know, he is—he has taken an approach that is just, plain and simple, more radical than where the people of the state of Alaska are.”

If Ms. Murkowski isn’t taking orders from Obama campaign manager David Plouffe, it’s hard to tell.

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