David Frum, Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (of all places) and former Bush speechwriter, has a column in today's Washington Post that essentially says "circle the wagons." It's a great read to bolster your confidence that Obama will win. Here are a few excerpts; the whole article titled "Sorry, Senator. Let's Salvage What We Can" can be read at
http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=7824141739271409746&postID=8955068266411639478
There are many ways to lose a presidential election. John McCain is losing in a way that threatens to take the entire Republican Party down with him. . . . McCain's awful campaign is having awful consequences down the ballot. I spoke a little while ago to a senior Republican House member. "There is not a safe Republican seat in the country," he warned. "I don't mean that we're going to lose all of them. But we could lose any of them."And to add insult to injury, Alaska's largest newspaper The Anchorage Daily News has endorsed Obama. Here's the conclusion of their editorial:
In these last days before the vote, Republicans need to face some strategic realities. Our resources are limited, and our message is failing. We cannot fight on all fronts. We are cannibalizing races that we must win and probably can win in order to help a national campaign that is almost certainly lost. In these final 10 days, our goal should be: senators first.
What should Republicans be doing differently? Two things:
1. Every available dollar that can be shifted to a senatorial campaign must be shifted to a senatorial campaign.
2. We need a message change that frankly acknowledges that the Democrats are probably going to win the White House -- and that warns of the dangers of one-party, left-wing government.
It's the only argument we have left. And, as the old Washington saying goes, it has the additional merit of being true.
Yet despite her formidable gifts, few who have worked closely with the governor would argue she is truly ready to assume command of the most important, powerful nation on earth. To step in and juggle the demands of an economic meltdown, two deadly wars and a deteriorating climate crisis would stretch the governor beyond her range. Like picking Sen. McCain for president, putting her one 72-year-old heartbeat from the leadership of the free world is just too risky at this time.If this is what the folks at uber-conservative American Enterprise Institute think, and what the largest newspaper in the Governor's state believes, then who am I to disagree?
Ralph
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3 comments:
GOP pessimism begins to seem like an avalanche. Now McCain's fellow Arizona senator, John Kyl, has expressed doubts that McCain can win.
... Unchecked, this angry new wing of the Democratic Party will seek to stifle opposition by changing the rules of the political game. Some will want to silence conservative talk radio by tightening regulation of the airwaves via the misleadingly named "fairness doctrine"; others may seek to police the activities of right-leaning think tanks by a stricter interpretation of what is tax-deductible and what is not.
from "Sorry, Senator. Let's Salvage What We Can"
Frum does, however, offer some interesting strategies for dealing with Rush Limbaugh and his beloved American Enterprise Institute. Like most members of any paranoid culture, he anticipates how we might react based on how his comrades acted in a similar situation - with vindictive rage and, as you point out, corruption.
His fears for his future are not completely without merit. His brand, the neoconservatives, are headed out to pasture. But it won't be because of our retaliation. It will be from the weight of their own ineptness and misdirection. We will always have Conservatives [as we should], but they will be a different breed...
I welcome the return of the thinking, intelligent, moderate Republicans -- like Christie Todd Whitman, William Weld, and some of the giants of the past.
Disagree with them, but they would not stoop to the level of Bush/Rove/McCain/etc.
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