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.
Of course we'll pick it apart. His article and his entire blogsphere is nothing but bad news and doom and gloom. Who needs that kinda cr@p?
Nobody can predict what is going to happen at this point. Any possible outcome is sheer speculation. Both Hillary and Obama are media darlings who would crash and burn under a debate with Gulianni, Romney or McCain.
I'm all for facing facts, but if you're going to post some doom and gloom, at least make it from a respectable source. This is like the underdog coach telling his players before the game; "well guys, we're probably going to get mopped up... uhhh... go team..."
Democrats can't help themselves, raise taxes, fund socialism and gun control so you can't do anything about it. That's all they know, that's all they have ever known.
Fred Thompson, any republican would crush Hillary if they acted like conservatives. Let's hear Fred Thompson say we must secure the ports, and we must secure the borders. We must deport the 12 million illegals in the country. We will increase revenues to the government by further reducing tax rates. Global warming is not caused by people but by the sun and volcanoes and the oceans. Activist judges, justices must not be tolerated.
Along with the corrosion of the culture and the dumbing down of the educated, we are now to accept the diluting of the Republican Party with the nomination of a man whose own mother doesn't find him a credible conservative. (And 2/3 of whose wives don't find him honorable.)
We can do better, and we must.
Immigrants are not like the welfare recipients who rely on rat handouts to get by....most immigrants are capitalists more than socialists....again; if the Republicans lead they can get legal immigrants into their voting base- a lot of them are already there...yet if they sit around and react they are screwed...
Right now if things continue the way they are going, I would have to agree with these statements.
The Republican Party with the RNC in the lead, couldn't find it's own ass with both hands and a road map.
Sounds like Mr. Lonsberry has gotten into the kool-aid early this a.m.
I just want to see Hillary actually try to debate a person who can think on their feet. Fred will annialate her.
"It's too complicated to go into here but I believe the American people are moving away from conservative principles..."
The referendum votes against gay mariage and affirmative action and strengthening private property rights against Kelo are winning by wide margins across the country in state after state. The American people do support conservative principles. The left wing stuff is shoved down our throats by legislators.
That's because the GOP matched their lurch to the left, step by step.
Best example: democrat leaders actually called President Bush a racist murderer over hurricane katrina. No ifs ands or buts. President Bush's response was to apologize.
You know, all this "not fighting" happens for a reason. The republicans don't have any fight in them. I see the boat sinking, but I'm just one of the millions of passengers going down with the ship. The captain and crew have deserted. Leadership matters. Right now, we are sunk.
It's going to depend on how the war goes. If the surge works and Iraq is more stable come 2008 then Iraq isn't the issue and it's back to basic party differences. If the surge doesn't work and we're still mired down then the Democrats will probably clean up.
But there is one thing he can't escape. He abandoned a majority of Americans with his immigration policy, and undoubtedly lost great chunks of his base. As you said, too complicated to go into here in detail, but when you throw in with the liberal opposition you send the message to people that they might as well vote democrat.
Would that energize conservatives?
With 'Rat control of all three branches of government in 2008, you can count on the complete push of Owlgore's, Global Warming lie in stone and on our back and our children's back forever.
The 'Rat elite has no other goal than socialism. The Global Warming lie is a prime 'rat lever to destroy capitalism and personal freedoms.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
100% correct.
I'm going to take issue with your point about it "all hinging on Iraq."
The Democrats, along with their supporters in the MSM, are fixing in the public mind that Iraq is a failure. They can & will maintain this conclusion right through the election. Nothing short of a troop withdawal will change the public perception.
Liberal Democrats & the MSM are knee-jerk anti-war. They will hold together in this conspiracy. Second, they have convinced the mushy-middle to focus on US casualties as the measure of 'progress'. Notice that when US casualties drop for a period that they switch to reporting Iraqi civilian casualties. As long as the Iraqi insurgents supply the MSM with a steady drumbeat of Iraqi casualties, the MSM will trumpet this as emblematic of Bush (read Republican) failure.
What the Republicans need to do is Spread-the-Floor -- engage the Democrats on a whole range of issues and espouse conservative values. Give the voters a choice. Then we win.
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