I normally don't disagree with you much. But I disagree here.
I think a lot of people realize that the current political situation is untenable. But no politician has the stones to basically go all in on these issues. Fred apparently is willing to make the ultimate bet. Time will tell if he has properly calculated the odds, but I think he realizes that the time is right for some political castor oil to be administered to the body politic.
I agree. There are certain issues today that a politician could go "all in" on and create a near-landslide.
As you'll recall, the clear reason why the GOP lost in '06 was that their voters stayed home. Any successful Republican candidate needs to get these voters back to the polls in '08.
There are three issues that, as a package, would do it:
1. Victory in Iraq and the War on Terror.
2. Effective border security and domestic enforcement
3. Make the Bush tax cuts permanent.
Everything else is ancillary to these issues. Corruption, crime, family values, judges, the economy, etc. all orbit around these three planets.
The voters want something important accomplished! A candidate proposing to actually accomplish something important has an opportunity.
In many respects, this is like the 1980 election -- when the same ol' shit wasn't going to hack it. Y'all recall who won that election? And why?