Drudge: Rove Confident GOP Will Retain Congress

"...a Democrat is going to recognize that private investment accounts for Social Security is a fast track to the White House."

What you're saying is that Democrats have to become Republicans to get elected. Not gonna happen. Look at Joe Lieberman. He disagreed with the avowed Socialists in the Democrat base on ONE ISSUE, the WOT, and they effectively threw him out of the party for it. Even Hillary is not far enough to the left for most of the Dem base, and she's a Communist by my standards.

The Democrats' biggest problem is that their base is so far out of the mainstream that any candidate who makes it past them is unpalateable to middle American voters. And all the MSM cover in the world isn't going to make up for that. Not with the New Media.

Media bias makes it impossible for Rove or any Republican to 'control the news cycle'. This last month has seen no less that 4 ot 5 stinkbomb books designed to tropedo the Republicans in many different ways (Woodward, Kou book, etc).

Nice excuse, but when the White House calls up the Los Angeles Times, even when they're drowning in liberal sludge, they not only answer the phone, they also generally print what is passed on. I'm not even going to imply that there's an excuse for most of the lamestream press, but there is an absolute failure by the executive and the legislature to engage the press. It has been a problem from well before Bush entered the White House, but it has just plain gotten worse.

The few bright ideas they had worked. Embedding the press in with troops was not only brilliant in concept, but in reports it worked out perfectly. But those are exceptions, not the general rule. Press lives and dies by being in the loop, and the only loop they're permitted in is infested with liberal snakes.

That such policies are failures can be no better demonstrated than by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in California. Here you have a guy who can land the front page by blinking an eye towards a reporter. Yet since he's taken office, he's kept almost all reporters twenty feet away from him, operates virtually on a pool only as far as the press goes, and probably has the lamest press office ever in California government.

The few times he's actually sat down with reporters or editorial boards, he's gotten great positive coverage and moved his agenda forward. But again, this is the rare exception. Instead he's shuffled from pool report opportunity to pool report, uttering a drone of words, that maybe catches ten seconds on air, and hardly even is bothered with in print.

Left or right media, it doesn't matter, the Republican philosophy has been 'stay away.' If this is Rove's contribution to make himself 'brilliant', I'd call it utter failure, and probably the worst policy conceived within the party, though right behind is torpedoing any and all competition within the party.

The sole saving grace we've had is that the liberals can't help but spout off stupid things left and right. But we'll pay for it in 2008 because we'll have to build name recognition for whomever will be running against whatever major name they toss into the ring, or compromise on someone who isn't desirable but whom we don't have to spend half a billion dollars introducing them to someone who hasn't read this board everyday.

I dont know, kingu. You can always point out where it could be better, but i dont see WH disengaged with the press.
I see that Snow grapples with the press on a daily basis,
the President is out there daily, lots of pressers and media interviews (recently O"Reilly), etc.

With Snow in there, it is a lot better than the WH used to be. My point is that, whether the Bush or Arnold Press Office is good or bad, you *still* have a very biased press that is daily working to undermine whatever message the Bush WH wants to send out.

What you're saying is that Democrats have to become Republicans to get elected. Not gonna happen.

Parties can and do change positions, and it is important for the country that the Democrats come around. Therefore, I hope that they do.

On school vouchers, for example, one of the strongest support demographics is black inner city parents. They know how badly their kids are being served and they are desperate for a change. The moment this becomes a signficant wedge issue, the national Democrats will shift their ground. We need to make school choice a wedge issue in the cities.

Similarly, on Social Security, support for private investment accounts grows (1) the younger the voter; (2) the better educated the voter; and (3) the more familiarity the voter has with a 401(k), IRA, or other thrift savings plan. The Democrat position is based on lying to the elderly and uninformed. This is not a sustainable position in the long run.

All it takes is one or two prominent national Democrats to come around. Then reform becomes bipartisan, the air goes out of the big lie campaign, and the Democrat base will follow. That, at least, is my hope.

It is important for the country to have two viable political parties, but I don't see the Democrats coming back from the far left anytime soon, certainly not while there's a war on.

My wish is that the Republicans would become more conservative. They've completely forgotten the Contract with America. Those ideas are what brought the Pubbies to the dance. But instead what I've noticed is that as the Democrats have moved to the far left, the Republicans have partly followed--immigration, campaign finance reform, the education bill, a new Medicare entitlement, spending, spending, spending, the list goes on. The Republicans have to be brought kicking and screaming back to their roots. Then perhaps the Dems will move a little to the right. One can hope.

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