[petercooper]

Fred would have been much better than McCain. Or MACACA! Imagine if Allen hadn’t said that one word. We’d possibly have Allen/Palin and be sailing into the WH.

[fluffdaddy]

Pause to reflect how much better off Republicans would be in this race if we had had the wit to nominate a candidate who could have stood up when the financial crisis struck and said — This didn't happen because the government was too devoted to free markets. It happened because the government wasn't devoted to free markets enough. It happened because Democrats pushed the mortgage industry in a very dangerous direction.

As this video indicates, Fred could and would have said that. He could have made the economic crisis into a liability for Obama. McCain seized the issue and promptly shot himself in the foot with it. The wound is festering and it may well kill his candidacy.

This video is agonizing because it shows us so clearly what might have been. Bush, Dole, Bush, Bush, McCain — for twenty years Republicans have been ideologically adrift. We had a chance to fix that in 2008. Instead we picked the most ideologically disoriented Republican candidate since Wilke.

Republicans truly are the stupid party.