The GOP is going through the same thing the Democrats went through in the late 80s/early 90s. What does their party stand for? Several senior officials are meeting today.
I have voted for Republicans in the past and think it’s important to have choices. I realize growing up on the east coast that most of my Republican friends are fiscally moderate/conservative but socially moderate or liberal.
In the past McCain said the Limbaugh and Hannity wing of the party was destructive. Then during this election he courted that wing (which hated him and the immigration bill he co-sponsored with Ted Kennedy) and picked Gov. Palin.
The way things are now it is almost impossible for a Republican to win their primary without the far right Evangelicals. However, when they sift that far right during the primaries it makes it difficult to win during the general election. Most Americans are not single issues voters.
Even Bill O’Reilly said yesterday on Fox News that while the far right and far left pundits make a lot of money on TV and the radio, things are changing. Ideology like that is out. People want answers on “kitchen table” issues.
Should the GOP break into two? I don’t see how the fiscally moderate or conservative Republicans but socially moderate ones can be in the same tent with the far right. If the GOP stays on this course they will continue to alienate a huge segment of their party and the nation in general.
Bush received over 40% of the Latino vote. According to early voting analysis Obama won the Latino vote by more than 2 to 1. Does the GOP not realize the Latino population will be the majority in a few decades? Let them keep saying only certain people can be true Americans. What the heck does that mean?
They might also want to ease up on the snark. Remember Gov. Palin’s diss toward community organizers during her convention speech? Guess those skills came in handy seeing how Sen. Obama’s ground operation was extremely organized.
Not sure why Palin would even dream of running for president. Who knows what will happens four years from now but I assume several Republicans will be running in the primary. I doubt they will give her a pass. Huckabee appeals to the same demographics and is more qualified. If the loss had been closer, maybe she would have a better advantage. Also it doesn’t help that McCain staffers are talking about how she refused to prep before her ABC or CBS interviews, that she spent more than the rumored 150K on clothes for herself and her family (she was told to buy three suits for the convention and the wealthy donor was pissed when he got the bill) and she went off message when she started talking about Ayers before they signed off on it. The latter is very strange. Why weren’t the two communications departments talking?
She insisted a McCain staffer be fired after her camp thought he was talking to the press. McCain rehired him saying he wasn’t going to fire someone during the last weeks of the campaign. Keep an eye on Nicholle Wallace. She is the senior McCain staffer who refused to take the hit for the clothes debacle. I think we will be hearing more from her about what was really going on during the last few months of the campaign.
I don’t know what McCain’s legacy will be. I just know this is the not the same candidate from 2000. That man would have never hired Steve Schmidt or picked Palin. That man showed up the other night during his gracious, classy concession speech.
If you were the head of the RNC (Republican National Committee) what would you do? Do you think Palin will run for president in 2012 or focus on a talk show? Both?
Thursday, November 06, 2008
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19 comments:
Yes, he sure wasn't the McCain of old! I first got acquainted with him via the IMUS in the Morning Show and he has really seemed to change since then.
Palin is a joke. And I'm sure a lot will come out about her in the following months that will make it harder for her to have a shot.
I think it's sad, what McCain did to his image in order to pander to the uber conservatives.
I don't think Palin should run as anything in 2012.
I don't think she is the idiot many make her out to be, but she is definitely not presidentialo material.
I remember when Nicolle Wallace said right after the clothes incident, "If someone wants to throw me under the bus, I think the most honorable thing to do is to lie there." I definitely think she will be coming out with her side of the story.
Palin is definitely running in 2012. I am so disappointed in John McCain, who was one of 12 senators on the committee I worked on on Capitol Hill in the early 1990s and for whom I actually voted (cross-over) in the Virginia presidential primary in 2000. He totally lost his bearings after the 2000 SC loss to Bush and seemed willing to go to any lengths to ensure that that would not happen again.
The problem I wonder if keeps him up at night is this: he and his team clearly realize they made a huuuuuge mistake in putting her on the ticket. While, thank God, they didn't win, the problem is: he unleashed her, and now she is going to be around for a looooong time. She is clearly so full of herself and her abilities that nothing will keep her from clawing every bit of publicity/advantage she can. And there are those right-wing Republicans who are so enamored of her.
Unfortunately we have only seen the beginning of Sarah Palin, I'm afraid. Shame on you John McCain!!
ugh.
I totally see Palin taking the talk show/book deal/public speaking route. Perhaps she could have a reality show like the Osbourne's. Her family would be perfect! She's too much of a diva to retreat to Alaska and go back to her life of huntin' and diggin'. She's had a taste of the limelight and she'll probably want more.
If the Republican party knows whats good for them and wants to survive, they shouldnt entetain that notion. I was shocked to see so many Hispnaic voters vote Democrat. Were they that clueless not to reach out to the minorities. All theur stratergists should never be hired again.
gil - I remember McCain from when I worked on the hill and I agree with you.
lilacspecs - it's coming out already. Sometimes I listened and watched McCain and thought he doesn't believe what he is saying. I will be interesting to see how he works with the new administration.
j. doe - I was watching Fox today and even they are stunned with the Palin stuff that is coming out. The McCain campaign did a better job then I thought at hiding her ignorance. She is beyond an idiot but what makes it worse is she doesn't care. Sorry but anyone who doesn't know Africa is a continent and not a country doesn't need to be a leader of one of the most powerful countries on the planet.
kim b - I agree with you regarding 2000. McCain was furious with Bush/Rove and rightfully so. Then in 2004 when Bush was having a tough time during the campaign McCain all of a sudden was campaigning for him. At the moment I wondered if they had cut a deal or something. There were also theories that he wasn't feel so well and maybe that impacted his judgement. I think Steve Schmidt regrets the Palin pick. He was very cryptic in his recent comments to Fox. It's their own fault. They didn't vet her and really had no idea what they were getting into.
milanese - if the diva stories are true there is no way we have heard the last of her. So curious to see what she will do and what type of support she will have. I would love to see a woman be president, but she is not the one.
glamah16 - the ironic thing is McCain received so much flack for trying to solve the immigration problem from the far-right. Then he couldn't even talk about his moderate views on the issue because of the Limbaugh and Hannitys. It was a lose lose situation.
It will be interesting to see.
Yes, McCain and his folks' failure to vet Palin and their apparently rather cavalier offering to her of the possibility to be the vice-president (and thus possibly the president) of the United States is absolutely dumbfounding. Not to mention such a cynical political move. Those guys can 'regret' all they want, but they're the ones that made the decisions that unleashed the beast.
Great posting, and I'm glad to finally have internet at home again so I can keep up with what you have to say on a regular basis!!
moi - I wonder what her family thought of this experience. It is pretty unique.
kimb -exactly. They made the decision. They have to be accountable. If they had done their homework they would have learned she didn't know what countries were in NAFTA and moved on to the next person.
Hey there!! {waves}
I am driving through the blogosphere and checking out all of the interesting dialogue about this remarkable time in our nation's history.
America is redefining itself to the world and ALL of us can be part of the process of redefinition - by altering who we are and altering how we define "United States".
Please feel welcome to drop by my blog and share your reactions on my newest post! I'd love to hear more opinions!
Peace, blessings and DUNAMIS!
Lisa
I don't know how in touch with reality they are but the idea of Palin for 2012 stunned me ...
And then is she intelligent enough to do a talk show? I didn't see any sign of it and was curious about how much Todd helped her with her day job, back before McCain hooked up with her.
I liked Glamah's suggestion on my blog that she become a Fox correspondent. Preferably their Alaska correspondent.
As far as the Republican party goes - I have no idea. The first person that D and I ran into when we were working GOTV on Election Day was a lifelong Republican who'd had it with Bush's lack of compassion, was appalled by McCain's turnaround, and said the absolute last straw was Palin. His yard was filled with Obama signs and he said he'd contributed financially to Obama's campaign because he was clearly "a decent human being, something that the current Bush Republican Party doesn't seem to be able to produce."
It was a pretty powerful statement.
I have many East Coast friends who had been of the fiscal conservative/liberal personal ilk, and they feel completely alienated at this point.
I also think we'd do better with a multiple party system, in general.
Great post!
lisa - thanks for stopping by. The coverage here has been just incredible. My Italian friends are relieved and said how they had a hard time reconciling our current administration with the Americans they knew. How did Bush get elected twice they kept asking me? Of course I had to ask about Mr. Berlusconi who was elected three times. I know expectations are high. I doubt Obama can reach them but at least I know he will try.
di mackey - Before yesterday I just knew she would get a talk show. Now I'm not sure sure. She not a comic and her "brand" is getting raked through the mud as we speak.
jen - Exactly, I was think about the "Rockefeller" Republicans. Where are they going to go? Or the Reagan Democrats? They are different socially economically but both groups went for Obama. That is not good for the GOP. It might be nice to have another party but having too many ala Italy would not work in our country.
Good for you for throwing Berlusconi back at the Italians. I get so tired of people acting so superior when they have chosen their own bozos.
If Palin runs for President in 2012, at least she has name recognition going for her... but that may not work in her favor
I completely agree, ragazza. The GOP is in a true quagmire. There is no way that the pragmatic "tax less spend less" branch of the party can unify with the far Christian right. It is a really huge problem that they are going to have to solve. Christian conservatives have brought the party to its knees -- you can no longer be a "true" Republican without bowing to their extreme views and philosophies. This decimates the party and sucks it of its intelligence.
Palin is just a result of this. She is, besides Huckabee, the brightest and best which the extreme right has -- but people saw that for what it was and turned against it in the election. McCain has to live with his grievous errors which hurt his image, hurt his party, and hurt the cause of intelligent, thinking Americans everywhere.
As the stories shake out about the campaign, we will see these jagged juxtapositions with even more clarity.
Palin is a joke -- but a bad one. I want to believe she will go the talk show/reality show route. She belongs there, and nowhere near 1600 Pennyslvania Avenue.
movie fan - good point. Name recognition is a big plus. We'll see if her negative ratings stay high.
diana - I was watching Gov. Terminator on CNN yesterday. He is a Republican for fiscal reasons, socially he is center-left. Anderson Cooper was asking him about the GOP's problems and the Gov. agreed that the GOP has to do some soul searching. I really don't see how they are going to fix this. The far right dominates and nobody wants to piss off the powerful Limbaugh who has millions of listeners everyday.
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