Posted on 03/28/2007 5:37:45 AM PDT by shortstop
The way it stands now, we Republicans are on track to get the thumping of a lifetime. We are about to get spanked, and spanked hard.
I realized that the other day when I saw this bumper sticker: “Is it 2008 yet?”
The point was clear. Democrats are eager for 2008 to come; Republicans are living in fear of its arrival.
Because our party is on the rocks.
George W. Bush and several years of a GOP congressional majority have just about killed it.
And the horizon looks dark and foreboding.
Let’s look at the two parties’ presidential prospects. The Democrats have two excellent candidates. We Republicans have two relatively weak candidates.
Though I disagree with them both, Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton are both electric candidates. They excite people, especially Democrat people. They both would be superstars on the international scene.
And they both are liberals.
Though they are each trying to conceal that little fact at this stage of the campaign, the two leading Democrat candidates are dyed-in-the-wool liberals. That’s probably a good thing for a Democrat candidate to be. It certainly would be seen as a good trait by the party’s philosophical core – which is itself liberal.
So the Democrats have two head-turning candidates who believe in things that represent the party’s traditions and which jibe with the beliefs of the party’s most active and vocal members.
If you’re a Democrat, that’s a good thing.
We Republicans, on the other hand, face a different prospect.
Rudy Giuliani and John McCain, while each is a man of significant accomplishment, don’t have the marquee appeal of the Democrats. They are probably Grade B politicians. Senator McCain is clearly a brave patriot, but he was shot down more than 40 years ago and those who remember the significance of his service are few. Mayor Giuliani owes his national reputation as much to “Saturday Night Live” as to anything else.
And they both are liberals.
On the great issues of our day and our Republic, John McCain and Rudy Giuliani have spent their careers closer to the Democrat position than the Republican position. And that’s not so fun for conservatives, who are the party’s base. They face the likely prospect of having a candidate whose philosophy they disagree with.
That’s not good.
Compound that with the fact that the mismanagement of the war has turned the country not only against it, but in large part against the notion of national self-defense. The true Republican position on the war would be to fight it ruthlessly to completion. After this experience, it is far more likely the country will have no stomach for any fight whatsoever. That’s why Iran is posing 10 times the threat Iraq posed and getting one-tenth the flak from the United States.
Responsibility for that can only be attributed to President Bush. He roused the nation’s spirits after September 11, and led us into war, but somehow has not been successful at maintaining our interest and commitment. In all likelihood, the Iraq war will be a defining issue in 2008 and it won’t break in the Republicans’ favor.
Another area where we suffer is, unlike the Democrats, we have no galvanizing issue or cause. Winning the Congress for the GOP is no longer a draw. We did that already and got nothing out of it. Winning the White House in order to control Supreme Court nominations died the day George W. Bush uttered the name, “Harriet Myers.”
There is no real reason, other than fear of Hillary, that even comes close to uniting Republicans.
Democrats, on the other hand, are so seething with hatred for George W. Bush and conservatives – though George W. Bush is not a conservative – that they are highly motivated for the election. They are on fire with zeal in anticipation of 2008.
You add it all up and the Democrats are holding most of the cards. We Republicans can’t even seem to get excited or frightened by the contest.
Which is a good way to lose.
As it stands now, 2008 will be a Democrat romp. Only an unexpected and monumental collapse by the Democrats, or an unexpected and monumental surge by the Republicans, stands any chance of shaking things up.
Which is pretty gloomy.
And it means that while the Democrats are looking forward to 2008, the next best chance for Republicans is 2010 or 2012.
And that’s an awful long time.
So long, in fact, you wonder what form the Republican Party will take as it suffers all those years locked out of power.
If the Dems win both houses of Congress and the White House, then we are headed for a one-party system.
My take is one word: s***ssion.
I hate to sound doom and gloom, but I've felt that way for a long time.
In many ways, the GOP is already doomed. The leadership has decided it must move far to the left to win, which in the end will insure a loss.
Two single term Senators with no real experience. The fact that the MSM fawns all over the DNC front runners shouldn't be confused with their being "excellent candidates".
As for the "Is it 2008 yet?" bumper sticker, if he could peel it off the pink VW bus he saw it on, he would find a "Is it 2004 yet?" sticker, and below that a "2000" and so on.
I concur that the GOP needs to slap its RINOs and get on with winning this war (against liberals and islamofascists), but the tone of this article is going to frighten the women.
I'll have whatever he's drinking, bartender.
I doubt the veracity of anyone who claims Hillary is "Electric". The supposition that only McCain and Rudy are viable candidates is preposterous.
Fred is going to win, if he runs. Hunter and Huckabee are also contenders way above Rudy and Johnny.
Could you imaging a free form debate between Hillary and Fred? I want front row tickets to that!
And just think, back in 2002, we all thought that the Win of both houses and President Bush winning, that the Democratic party was doomed.
No.
You will vote Rudy.
Or we all die.
That is all.
Why doesn't this guy just swallow the Kool-Aid and get it over with?
The only thing that will unify the GOP is a return the principles of Reagan and a platform and candidates that espouse it.
Rudy Giuliani will return Republicans to the era of Nixon and set back the for a decade.
Amen Brother Shortstop!
Certainly, if Giuliani is the republican candidate.
Now the dems are revealing their extremism, and Bush is doing nothing to alert the American people. He is not fighting.
I think there is a 50-50 chance that the republican party will implode and have to be replaced. And those are very high odds for such an extreme event. The US risks an enormous move to the left until a new conservative party can become a viable force.
Keep in mind that if the GOP crumbles, there are a lot of liberal republicans in Congress who will in effect turn a large chunk of the country over to the democrats.
That will be enough. It strikes me that the Bush & Clinton 'dynasties' really depend on eachother politically. They play off eachother.
Unless the Democrats manage to avoid annointing Hillary, the Republican base will come out to vote.
Now, now. "Old Sparky", the Florida Electric Chair, is quite comparable to Hillary.
How about the Always Whining Freepers either finally find the courage to attack the Democrats for their absolutely out of control behavior in Congress or simply JOIN them. For example, did you even know the Democrat Controlled Congress has a LOWER approval rating then GW Bush?
The Always Whining Right is doing everything it can to elect as many Democrats as it can by spending all their time shooting their own in the back!
How abut you all just stop the hypocrisy and go home to your Democrat Party Masters.
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