If Bush wounded the GOP McCain is going to finish it off.

[grantcart]

There is a central fact that has dominated the history of the Republican party since 1952, they must have a clear and strong leader to keep their coalition from entering a civil war.


The modern Republican party is a mixture of three primal forces; reactionary religious triumphalism, national security fear mongering, conservative economic establishment. Without a clear leader to weave these groups together they will fight for dominance.


Bush hurt the Republican Party not just by undermining the Party's image as a competent organization but also by hanging onto Cheney and not setting up a clear heir apparent.


McCain is not taking the same tact as Goldwater or Dole who, after leading the party to a massive electoral loss, took a back seat and let the new leadership fight it out.


McCain's pick of Palin for VP and his obvious effort to still be the leader of the party seriously delays the chance for the Republican Party to fight it out, find a new leader and build a consensus of what the party's priorities are? Taxes, Pro-Life, Fear of _______ (insert your group to be afraid of here, looks like its going to be gays but they could come back to secular humanism).


Thanks John and keep it up. The more you bash Obama the more marginal the Republican Party appears and the more likely that 2012 will be an all out Republican intercine bloodletting primary.


Keep up the good work John.

[EFerrari]

1. They're so far removed from actual conservatism

they can't even bring up the boiler plate when they need to.

The modern Republican Party is now held together by bigots and thieves. They're done.

[snowbear]

2. Mr. McCain is totally losing it...

.
.




-

[FatDave]

11. Is that a photo?

Unaltered? I've never seen him look so bad. Part of it could be the lighting, but not all of it.

[Historic NY]

3. He is part of the GOP, grumpy old pricks.

[Vinca]

4. McCain is trying way too hard to be relevant to his party.

Forget the country as a whole. Sadly, for him, he's coming off as a half senile, crotchedy, old has-been lacking even an iota of class.

[uponit7771]

5. McCain is creepy to me, bloated bastard Rush is fine as the face of the GOP but McKKKlan can help hi

...him tear down that party

[Danger Mouse]

6. Goldwater would be sick to his stomach if he saw the modern GOP.

The GOP is dead. In its place is this rotted corpse that doesn't realize it's keeled over yet.

[GoCubsGo]

8. "Weekend At Bernies"...

...republican style, with McCain and the MSM propping it up.

If only the GOP was dead. But, it's like a vampire. Dead, but not really dead. They'll keep coming back, under their usual cover of darkness...

[liberal1973]

7. Good. McBush is a dirtbag

Good. If Mcbush doesn't finish off what's left of the repuke party, then I will be more than happy to continue in helping finish it off. :)

[zulchzulu]

9. I couldn't agree more. McCain is now just a shriveling old twit, perfect for the GOP

Old ideas, old complaints, old solutions... plus McCain is obviously a sore loser. What a better candidate to represent the Republicans...

[ccinamon]

10. thanks for your brief perspective....

your post is succinct and gives me a brief spot of hope!

[NorthCarolina]

12. I say let him keep rubbing salt into the GOP's wounds. n/t

[grantcart]

13. or we can sit back and watch them do it to themselves.

[NorthCarolina]

14. Yes, Eric Cantor, Michael Steele, Lindsey Graham, etc are doing a good job of it as well.

:hi:

[NYC Liberal]

15. It's not just McCain...it's all of them

They refuse to learn from the last election. It's quite astounding actually, because they aren't even pretending to have "gotten" it. They're setting themselves up for another big loss in 2010.

They're like the 5 year old in a time-out who can't go out to play until they learn to share and play nice.

[grantcart]

16. But if McCain had selected Romney or some other reasonably intelligent hack

they would have a heir apparent.

[NYC Liberal]

17. Anyone who would have accepted McCain's VP slot, IMO,

is not reasonably intelligent. Any Republican who ran was going to lose... especially when you consider that McCain was their best chance. Better to wait until 2012, which is what Romney is doing. Then they can play the role of the challenger "attack dog" which is what they do best. They don't do well in the majority because they actually have to make policy and, well, their policies suck. And it's hard to spin the reality of the damage they cause. But they do much better in the minority because they can sit and point fingers and lie and attack...all without actually having to "do" anything substantive.

[AwakeAtLast]

18. Yep, falling in line behind a loser

It shows that McCain doesn't really have a military mind. If you're soundly defeated you retreat, regroup, then make a new strike. This may be the GOP's Waterloo.

[mvd]

19. It's so obvious that he's an angry loser

But I'm not surprised - I knew during the campaign that McCain was beholden to party politics.