Are Happy Days Here Again for GOP? By Tony Blankley

[Demeter]

TALK ABOUT WISHFUL THINKING!

Yesterday, I read Bob Novak's column titled "Republican Melancholy," which correctly caught the current depressed mood in GOP circles. President Bush's position on illegal immigration has deeply alienated much of the loyal rank and file Republicans across the country. Key Republican incumbents, such as Sen. John Warner of Virginia and Rep. Debbie Price of Ohio, are announcing their retirements. Sen. Larry Craig's cringe-inducing disgrace only adds to the funereal mood. And, of course, the Iraq War, for all the surge's success this summer, remains vastly unpopular with the public. To top off this GOP discontent, none of our presidential candidates has so far come even close to being seen as our "next Reagan." ....It is undoubtedly true that most Republican professional strategists and pollsters are bracing for a potentially grim election night 14 months from now. I share that assessment and that mood... the mood of an individual, a party or a country tends to be a trailing indicator of reality. A mood is the sum of emotions responding to past and present events. And, just as a 3-year-old child can instantly swing from tears to joyous laughter as soon as he is given previously denied candy or a toy, so can seasoned political operatives and adult voters everywhere switch their moods and their judgments of political events on a dime.



The troika pulling the Republican chariot of despair is composed of: 1. perceived failure or stalemate in Iraq, 2. Bush's position on illegal immigrants, and 3. Republican congressional corruption, big spending and immoral behavior.

While Bush continues to disappoint on illegal immigration issues, at least the failed effort for amnesty is behind us -- and was defeated by a stone wall of Republican congressional opposition. Also, and importantly, the leading GOP presidential candidates are all strongly and loudly for secure borders and against illegal immigration or amnesty. Democratic Party incumbents and candidates for president are mostly on the wrong side of this issue (even for general election voters -- not merely GOP voters). By next November, the politically incorrect opposition to illegal immigration will be a major winner for GOP candidates and will hurt Democrats in competitive districts and states (partially offset by possible loss of a smaller number of some Hispanic votes for GOP).

While it will take years for the Republicans to live down their recent big spending and corrupt ways, their big advantage on this is that they will be running against Democrats -- who have suffered from a justified reputation for similar waywardness for generations, even centuries. Certainly, the current Democratic Congress is already less admired than was the GOP Congress on the day of its defeat last November. Call the corruption issue a draw....

If by next November the public has a sunnier view of the Iraq War, it is likely to shine that sunshine on other issues and GOP candidates, as well. And, if the economy gets past the housing slump and the financial crisis -- for which there is ambiguous evidence that it just might -- next November would see one of the longest sustained economic growth periods in our history....My hunch is that the next election may well come down to what the public thinks of "Bush's War" in Iraq -- and also which party is seen as more able on the War on Terror generally...If military success and growing political success at the local and provincial levels with the Sunni tribal leaders continues and expands its effect to the national Baghdad government -- and we have both military calm and maturing pro-American governance in Iraq -- Democrats from presidential candidate to city council will be in an awful state...This spring, the Democrats pushed all their chips in for defeat in Iraq. They can't retrieve those chips now. That may well turn out to be the worst political bet since the Republicans stuck with Herbert Hoover for President in 1932.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/09/are_happy_days_here_again_for.html

[Demit]

1. Shorter Tony Blankley: There must be a pony in here somewhere. n/t

[Demeter]

6. Excellent Summation!

:rofl:

[Nite Owl]

2. Happy Days? Tony seems to

have taken some happy pills. Besides the fact their candidates are a sorry bunch.

[Demeter]

7. I Think He's Thinking of the Democratic Theme Song

Happy days are here again!

[frogcycle]

3. he conveniently omits

in his list of three problems, the assault on the Constitution. I guess he feels that the republican voters are perfectly happy with the spying, torture, politicization of the DoJ, election fraud... or does he not even realize it is going on, because he is all for it himself?

The immigration thing and the republican corruption and scandal are small, small potatoes. The problem republicans REALLY face is the electorate waking up to the fact that they are anti-American. They hate the middle class, want higher profits, lower taxes (for themselves), scrapping of social programs, no improvement in healthcare accessibility... and on and on. Their over-simplified message of 'less government; lower taxes' is fraying around the edges. The electorate will wake up to the fact that they are hypocrites - not because they have dalliances whilst talking a big line about being holier than thou, but because they pretend to actually give a crap about anyone but themselves and their cronies. The war is awful, but they still could finesse that if it calms down some; they can keep claiming it was necessary. But they can't sweep away the corruption that went with it - the obscene amounts of money they put in their pockets in the name of a GWOT to "protect us." If the dems get this message well formulated and then pound every one of them with it, "republican" can be a dirty word, not because they have sex, but because they are traitors.

[bemildred]

4. FUD. Clueless FUD. nt

[Demeter]

8. What's an FUD, Mildred?

[bemildred]

10. "Fear, uncertainty, doubt".

Originally a reference to Micro$oft marketing methods to keep is corporate user base inside the corral.

[Demeter]

11. Thanks. I Learned Something!

I am always learning on this site.

[Prophet 451]

5. He may be right

but not for the reasons he thinks. The neo-con ideaology has proven to be a dismal failure so perhaps, in the four or eight years in the wilderness that's sure to follow the election, they can figure out who they are and what the hell they represent.

[Demeter]

9. More Like 40 Years In the Wilderness for the GOP

Very old Testament, they'll eat it up!