After John McCain loses (which, barring a collision of planets, he almost certainly will), who will be in charge of the Republican party? Even if his fringe nutcase act was mostly for show, unlike a genuine article like Tom DeLay, Newt Gingrich gave the Republican party a bold and ideologically coherent leader to effectively rally the free-floating Clinton hate. Before them George “poppy” Bush supervised the tail end of the Reagan-era coke high.
Even the Powerline crowd would never describe George junior in the same terms as pure, uncut Reagan. George W. was like huffing glue – a short, delirious high then a fast dirty crash that leaves even a heavy hitter like Scott Johnson feeling dirty and slightly ashamed of himself. The GOP will not have any lingering goodwill to tap like poppy’s party did. Too bad for McCain and, yes, Sarah Palin, as a rule joke candidates don’t take over the party.
The GOP could look to the House, like they did under Clinton, for all the good that will do them. Can you name the last interesting thing that John Boehner did? Compared with a firebrand like Gingrich or a productive tyrant like Tom DeLay Boehner is a forgettable nonentity. Boehner keeps the seat warm until a real player wrangles the party behind his banner. We can set aside the Senate, which for institutional reasons is more moderate and therefore less likely to produce GOP leadership than the loopier House. The rule by extremes is too ingrained in the GOP’s DNA for a few election night massacres to wash away.
If we’re very, very lucky the ideological purity faction will win and drive the Reagan dems obamacons on the path of Cole. Is there any other choice? Can the party rally behind an ideologically tainted candidate who fails on abortion? Sensible tax policy? Torture? Habeas corpus? Unless the party’s insane Malkin wing can handle some heterodoxy from their leadership , the party is stuck with winners like House Whip Eric Cantor. The alternative is either rudderless obstructionism peppered with futile stunts, a la Boehner, or self-imposed exile into a purity-obsessed third party of far-right extremists.
So what’s next for the GOP? I don’t think that Obama hate will win the party any more traction than it gave McCain. They need a positive agenda. Unfortunately their platform was on the wrong side of history when Gingrich etched it in granite in 1994. The recent add-ons – torture, belligerent wars, islamophobic fear – had a skin of mold when Dick Cheney rolled them out in 2001. If John McCain, who honestly isn’t as stupid as his campaign has made him look, had any winning issues he would run on them. It’s not like he has not tried. They are stuck with random, flaining personal attacks because the surge in Iraq, offshore drilling, the capital gains tax and an unlicensed plumber with a tax lien all have the traction of a Yugo in Alaska.
Most likely the Republicans’ next move will look just like the McCain campaign. Like McCain the party hasn’t cared about anything more than tactics at least since the Contract with America was gutted and buried by Rove’s permanent Republican majority. The McCain team’s stupid mistakes even make a certain sense if you grant that the only thing that matters is tactics. Palin had star power, two X chromosomes and the Clinton voters were vulnerable because everybody kept saying so. Win!
Eventually, it was Schmidt who blurted out the epiphany concerning Obama. “Face it, gentlemen,” he said. “He’s being treated like a celebrity.”
The others grasped the concept — a celebrity like J-Lo! or Britney! — and exultation overtook the room.
***
Then for a half-hour or so, the group reviewed names that had been bandied about in the past: Gov. Tim Pawlenty (of Minnesota) and Gov. Charlie Christ (of Florida); the former governors Tom Ridge (Pennsylvania) and Mitt Romney (Massachusetts); Senator Joe Lieberman (Connecticut); and Mayor Michael Bloomberg (New York). From a branding standpoint, they wondered, what message would each of these candidates send about John McCain? McInturff’s polling data suggested that none of these candidates brought significantly more to the ticket than any other.
“What about Sarah Palin?” Schmidt asked.
Now for the first time! Ever! Monster scoop!! MUST CREDIT BALLOON JUICE! Here is a transcript from that meeting:
McCain: “We need a shot in the arm. You hear me boys? In the bleepdamn arm! Election held tomorrow, that sumbitch Stokes would win it in a walk!”
Schmidt: “Well’ he’s the reform candidate, Daddy.”McCain: “Yeah.”
Schmidt: “A lot of people like that reform. Maybe we should get us some.”
McCain: “I’ll reform you, you soft-headed son of a bitch. How we gonna run reform when we’re the damn incumbent? Is that the best idea you boys can come up with? Reform?! Weepin’ Jesus on the cross. That’s it? You may as well start drafting my concession speech right now.”
Schmidt: We could hire our own midget, even shorter than his.
McCain:
Wouldn’t we look like a bunch of Johnny-come-latelies, bragging on our own midget, don’t matter how stumpy.Yeah, sure. Whatever. Call me when Matlock’s on.
Congressional Republicans will not do any better. Barring any other brilliant idea, they will flailingly mimic Obama’s tactics until they figure out that they are not getting their ass kicked by tactics (it could take a while). Obama won (is winning) because he makes a bold, mature case for Democratic solutions to relevant national problems. He didn’t shy away from health care or progressive taxation. His conscientious stand on abortion was a savvy move both in style and substance. In isolation Americans prefer Democratic issues by roughly the same margins by which Obama is winning, they just don’t like milquetoast pols who compromise their principles for approval from the harpies and trolls at FOX News.
Obama’s winning formula will stay out of reach for the GOP as long as they remain chained to their turd of a neolithic platform. Intellectuals exist who might steer them back to the 21st century, or, failing that, at least back to the Magna Carta. Too bad those guys are on the outside looking in. The wingnuts and extremists left in charge are the people most likely to steer it further onto the rocks. Yet, as they say, possession is nine tenths of the law.
Comrade Jake
My vote is for Joe the Plumber.
dmsilev
It’s an interesting contrast to the Democrats’ years in the wilderness. Again, you have a party which seemed to have no real rudder, no sense of direction and no traction on the national scale. Kerry ran on a theme of Not Bush, which isn’t exactly the most compelling idea in the world, and that’s probably why he lost.
But.
The key difference is that the left wing of the Democratic Party didn’t and doesn’t have either the inclination or the ability to purge the moderates and even the conservatives. Blue Dog Democrats still exist, and still have a strong say in the party. The vast mushy middle of the Democratic Party isn’t being subjected to purges from the Great Orange Satan. I think the netroots got involved with maybe two or three primary challenges to incumbent Ds this year. In 06, there was Lieberman. That’s about it. Compare and contrast with the Club for Growth, etc., who try to enforce a rigid ideological line via well-funded primary threats and the like.
Until *that* ecosystem of think tanks, ideological institutions, etc. that enforce the Party line withers, the GOP is going to have a lot of trouble rebuilding its base outside of its core regions in the old South and the more conservative parts of the Midwest.
-dms
Bob In Pacifica
Tim, I like the drug references. Perhaps, considering our present military presence in Afghanistan, the Republican Party will be more like a heroin addict, curled up sleepily in the corner of a flophouse in a dreamy sleep, remembering the good old days, occasionally breaking into our houses to steal a tv to pawn for more drugs.
Far Left American Hater Incertus
I’m really hoping that the net result is that the nutjobs are marginalized and that a new Republican party emerges which isn’t tied to either the Neocons or the Theocons.
Lee
Let’s see how the aftermath of the election plays out.
As others have pointed out, either the crazies will take over the Republican Party or they’ll be tossed out.
If they are tossed, how about Ron Paul?
TCG
Who will run the GOP?
Mittens!
Far Left American Hater Incertus
@dmsilev: We’re also a little smarter about picking our primary battles. I think this year has shown that we were right when it came to Lieberman, and I really hope he loses his committee, even if he’s not kicked out of the caucus.
Comrade Jake
@Far Left American Hater Incertus:
That would be outstanding. Unfortunately, I view it as the least likely outcome, at least in the near term. We’re going to hear a lot from the nutjobs over the next couple of years.
Far Left American Hater Incertus
@Lee:
He’s just as crazy–just a different flavor.
burnspbesq
Here is one possible scenario.
1. The rational adult conservatives who have bailed on the McCain ticket are either purged from a purely nativistic and theocratic Republican Party or realize that there is no there, there. In the short run, they go to the Democratic Party for lack of anywhere else to go. But it’s an uncomfortable fit.
2. The Republican Party continues to exist in the South and in Utah and Idaho, but it is no more relevant on the national scene than Bloc Quebecois is relevant on the national scene in Canada.
3. The Democratic big tent is ripped apart by its progressive wing when the Howie Klein/Glen Greenwald/Jane Hamsher faction is able to recruit large numbers of political neophytes to run 2010 primary campaigns against Blue Dogs, Rahm Emanuel, and the House leadership, which prove to be uniformly unsuccessful.
4. The responsible adults reluctantly conclude that there is more that unites them than divides them, and a new center party is born.
5. Obama, knowing a losing hand when he sees it, bolts from the Democratic Party and runs in 2012 at the head of the new party.
Will this happen? Probably not. But I do think that those who equate the state of the Republican Party today to the state of the Whig Party at the end of the Fillmore Administration have a point.
chopper
oh, one of the best movies ever made.
cleek
it will be McCain.
who doubts for a second that McCain won’t be welcomed with open arms, and open legs, back to the TV talk show circuit? he’ll do his penance, plead "politics ain’t beanbag!", and then all the hosts will politely forget all about his lies about Obama, and his silly campaign against the press. they’ll be glad to have their straight talkin’ daddy back in their embrace. and McCain, as always, will wallow in the attention.
McCain will rail against Obama every Sunday morning, and the beltway press will eat his shit up.
you better, you bet.
Face
They do if it’s a Joke Party. Like dissolves like.
Palin/Plumber 2012
zmulls
I’d love to read this column next Wednesday, assuming everything goes the way it looks like it’s going to go.
But I remember waking up four years ago to realize that the country had voluntarily chosen to put that smirking wastrel in charge for four long years. I still get the dry heaves remembering the expression on his face.
I’m not sanguine about vote-flipping or late-night private vote-counting sessions in Ohio. I’m hopeful but not totally sure that the youth vote will show up. I hear that 1 in 7 supposedly rational adults are *still* undecided, and wonder what the *^#$ they are thinking at this point, and how can I count on them. I see the aggregate poll trend lines moving ever so slightly in the wrong direction the weekend before the election. And I am unable to really understand that McCain is going to get over 40% of the vote when in a rational world he would get around 15%.
So….forgive me if I can’t hear you right now over the sound of my stomach churning.
mellowjohn
MICHELLE BACHMAN FOR RNC CHAIRMAN (and i’m sure she’d go for the "chairman" rather than the "chairperson.")
Zifnab
I strongly disagree. The only powerful voices left in the GOP live in the Senate. The House has been gutted of leadership, and even then, most of its constituency got its start in the Republican Revolutions of ’94 and ’02.
If John Cornyn survives his re-election bid, I’d put my money on him. He’s not the best politician, but he’s from Texas which means big money and big political clout inherited from his predecessors. He’s from the Mitt Romney breed of corporate conservatives with a heavy social bent. And if McConnell gets ousted (which is more likely than Cornyn losing) he’s the heir apparent given the folks that remain.
Will a guy like Cornyn "save" the GOP? Fuck no. But he’ll do a valiant job of being a thorn in Obama’s side for the next four years. And he’ll give the wingnuts someone to rally around. So there’s my pick. Not that Noriega – his Dem challenger this year – doesn’t have my most fervent hopes, but Cornyn’s position is fairly solid and he’s my bet on the next Republican Head Honcho.
Comrade Jake
I hear George Allen is looking for a job.
boonagain
@chopper:
Couldn’t agree more. I bet I’ve watched it 30 times
burnspbesq
If the election were a college basketball game, right now the Democratic walk-ons would be in the game, and the Obama Crazies would be chanting "drive home safely" to the small group of fat-cat alums sitting behind the McCain bench.
Comrade Jake
@cleek:
I think that’s certainly possible cleek, that he’ll be on the morning talk shows. But I don’t think that will make him the leader of the party. Lots of GOP folks still hate the guy’s guts. If he loses, they’re not going to suddenly love him, even if the media welcomes him back.
Comrade Jake
@burnspbesq:
And lots of Kossacks would be screaming their guts out at the coach, wringing their hands, wondering why the fuck he’s trying to lose the game.
burnspbesq
@Comrade Jake:
Sadly, all too true.
J.D. Rhoades
Nixon?
Anyway, where the Republican party goes really depends on what happens in the next four years. If the first Obama term is a disaster (and it could be despite his bet efforts–there’s a LOT of shit to clean up and a lot more that could rain down on us) then Palin’s going to be their rising star on the platform of "I told ya so!" If things go well, then maybe we’ll see the few sane Republicans make a comeback. If things go okay, but don’t become Heaven on Earth within the first term, then the wingnuts will be in full cry on the "broken promises" theme, and the Palindrones still have their chance.
burnspbesq
@Comrade Jake:
And instead of enjoying the win, another large group of Kossacks would be continuing to piss and moan about the fact that
Tyler HansbroughJohn McCain is allowed to travel every time he catches the ball.cleek
ok. maybe not the leader. but nobody else in the GOP, right now, is as popular as John McCain. he’ll have the job of media-approved Republican spokesperson until someone takes it from him.
the leading figures in the GOP are McCain and a bunch of people who already have or are about to lose their jobs. McCain’s the only one who will still be in office. i think he could, if he wanted, use his media access to lead the party on some things (or, on the flip, he could be used by the GOP as their mouthpiece). i don’t know if he will, but i think the job’s his if he wants it.
he’s not going to lose: he’s going to have the election stolen from him by ACORN and Ayers!
Commie-rade Rommie
I wouldn’t discount a Senator in the Moses role quite yet – if they have 41+ on their side the United States Senate will magically become The Center Of The Universe for the GOP.
The Leader-to-be will be on the front line of
obstructionismthe fight for "sanity" against the Commie Obama. The wingnuts love to love a standard bearer, and this would be the opportunity of a political career to carry the flag.If they don’t have 41+ votes, then it’s all just "meddling kids" lamenting. Of course, this presupposes the Big O winning.
Dennis - SGMM
@zmulls:
Can’t remember which of the Beats it was who wrote "I saw the millions, swept with con…"
We’re asking the Fat Baby that is America to elect a sane, mature, rational, inquisitive adult – who also happens to be a different color. Fat Baby doesn’t really like any of those. Fat Baby likes someone who will promise more yummy snacks, tell scary stories, and then assure Fat Baby that it’s the strongest and smartest baby in the world.
I’ll be amazed if Obama wins.
Count Frankenkunt
GOP needs a seasoned defense con at the helm, maybe Petraeus in 2016. After Obama goes two terms the idea of a young change agent will be spent – so folks like Jindal and Pawenty aren’t likely to be so hot. Jindal and Pawlenty themselves will likely pass from the scene by then anyway. Give the social cons another 4 yr cycle to burn themselves out and accept the fact that they’re a permanent electoral minority, and won’t ever get to drive the GOP bus. Fiscal cons are nice, but they won’t ever appeal to the social con part of the base. Folks like Bloomburg, The Terminator, and Crist are too socially lib. But a defense con can be both socially lib and acceptable to the social cons by virtue of the social cons’ fetish for uniforms, the flag, and authoritarianism. A big name celebrity defense con like Gen P would also appeal to mods, indies, and 1st gen Dems (in 12 yrs many will be in family raising, middle class anxiety mode – they’ll be our future "Petraeus/Reagan Democrats").
Two terms of a lib Reagan (Obama) will shift the political spectrum. After the angries in the GOP burn some steam off, they’ll moderate and come back with something like the Clinton’s DLC – something centrist and not so scary. Basically a survival mechanism. An Eisenhower Republican like Petraeus will be a safe bet. The GOP is too much of an institution to commit suicide by letting the Jesus nuts to take over – too many monied interests with skin in the game to let the ship sink. Let the social cons run the South, let the fiscal cons run the rest, and when a solid and moderate defense con shows up to unite the two the GOP will be a viable political force again.
Walker
Huckabee.
Populist who retains the evangelic vote. It is their only hope.
Bootlegger
A centrist-pragmatist party is long overdue. In recent history most third part attempts were from the wings, not the center. The exception was Ross Perot who was more a cult of personality than a party organizer. Several political elites have already met about this and it would not surprise me one bit to see this emerge from the remnants of the Republican party and the centrists in the Dems.
Joe Vegas
You left out the part where McCain turned to Palin and said, “It’s a good thing your mama died in child birth, or she woulda died of shame.”
Librarian
The Republicans have a minor problem in that they have no real policies aside from starting wars, plundering the treasury and making the rich and the corporations richer. Call me crazy, but this might present somewhat of an obstacle to getting people to vote for them.
Zifnab
@Walker: You need someone holding an actual office. And – from a federal level – you need someone holding a Congressional office. You can’t lead from outside the party like that. Current political climates just aren’t friendly to outsiders telling insiders how to do their jobs. You can "advise" and you can "consult", but at the end of the day, its the Majority/Minority leaders calling the shots.
Huckabee doesn’t hold an office. Until he runs for election to some federal post, he just won’t hold clout like a McConnell or a Boehner will.
Svensker
That is true, but I still don’t think McCain will be embraced as the Leader by the RW base. They never liked him and only decided to get out the vote when Palin came on the ticket. McCain will be thrown under the Straight Take Express as soon as he loses.
It will be interesting to see who takes control of the Repubs — Jindal? Palin? Huckabee? Who’ll be the next Rove, Gingrich, DeLay?
(Well, interesting in the sense of trying to figure out whether your dog is vomiting because he ate shit or garbage…)
Grumpy Code Monkey
Cornyn has struck me as pretty much a non-entity in the Senate, despite getting some plum assignments as a freshman. Then again, I don’t follow what’s going on in the Senate much, so feel free to correct me.
Heh. I think I’d happily take Pappy O’Daniel over any modern Republican.
bartkid
>After John McCain loses (which, barring a collision of planets, he almost certainly will), who will be in charge of the Republican party?
The ghost of Joe McCarthy.
Conservatively Liberal
Please let it be Palin. Please please please please please please please please oh pretty please with sugar on top!! If the fundies force her on the party you know they are going to run it the rest of the way into the ground.
It would be the perfect way to end the Republican party, once and for all. Obama winning and the Republican party withering away as the few remaining sane Republicans flee and leave the clowns behind, it would be a dream come true.
vishnu schizt
@zmulls: I agree 1000.968%. I won’t believe it until I see McPalin conceding sometime Wednesday morning. Until then I’ll remember that day four years ago when the collective ignorance and mendacity that makes up a great portion of the American electorate collectively voted for a complete and total fuck up. Or the election was stolen , but I’m doing the the ‘ol hope for the best thing. I have little confidence given the showing in my own family where my formerly moderate democrat father has transmogrifed to a frightening totally irrational red-ass Obama hater. Christmas will be a hoot this year. Anyway, if I had my way I’d fly to Mexico, lose myself in a tequila bottle and some tan hottie and tune back in on Nov 5th.
El Cid
And hopefully by 2016 there will still be sane people around to remind the public that even under "centrist" and "moderate" Republicans like George H. W. Bush Sr., they destroy the economy, launch wars, and under every major Republican regime we lose an entire branch of our financial system to deregulationary theft.
Joe Beese
There you go.
zmulls
@vishnu schizt:
My Dad used to worship Hubert H. Humphrey. Now he listens to Rush.
Can’t talk politics with him anymore….
Lee
Cornyn is a tool of the highest magnitude.
He is directly responsible for it taking so long for the people of Tulia getting justice.
He had the qreat statement during the Patriot Act debates of "You have no rights if you’re dead".
If he leads the Republicans, they deserve everything that happens to them.
bellatrys
Even people who voted for you but somehow do not LOOK wingnutty enoughcan be kicked out of the party, too!
Lee
bellatrys,
I saw that story this morning.
I really want to believe there is more to the story and the Republicans are not just kicking out people who just look different (or young).
ATinNM
You are missing an important factor. There are three national political parties in the US as of 10/31/08.
1. The DemocraticParty
2. The Republican Party
3. The Obama Party
By any criteria one wishes to use Senator Obama has built himself a national political party with its own local state, and regional organization, fund raising, members, and etc. I’ll add this party is primarily (heh!) composed of people who actually go out and actually do stuff – community organizers and activists. Currently the Democratic and Obama Parties are in alliance and there is no telling what the Obama Party will do or even if it will officially continue after Nov 4.
One thing to note: Unless Senator Obama is complete idiot he will have observed the Clinton administration and knows what the Right Wing will do: obstruction in the Senate, vacuous posturing in the House, and lies, smears, and hate speech from the Limpblahs, et. al. Senator Obama seems to understand part of governance is communication and persuasion. The Obama Party would be an excellent means of such, going down to the local level. Which argues for the continuation of the OP.
DonnaInMichigan
I say Todd.
The "mental illness" gal….
She fits in….just right.
dylan
I know what Boehner did…
He cried. He cried alot.
Like when someone dropped the glass bong, cause it was covered with pizza grease.
Jon
Actual snippet of conversation back home in Alabama, Christmastime, 2001:
Jim Pharo
Walker @ #29 is right. Huckabee is their best choice. Makes hating people seem not just ok, but jovial, kind of fun, even.
I think there’s a lot of wishful thinking here. They have bench depth for what their needs are — building the infrastructure that McCain is trashing, getting the talent hunt underway, putting together a positive program for change — there’s a lot of people on their side who can move that forward. Hell, the Mittster’s a good choice — he’s good at running stuff even if voters find him odious.
They don’t have to win an election for basically 4 years. That’s adequate time to re-group, re-arm, and get back in the game.
Besides, in four year’s time the public will have a bad case of "Obama scandal fatigue" brought on by four years of relentless right-wing mud-slinging.
Joey Maloney
The Republicans may not have much of anything left after Tuesday, but they’ll still have pretty ferocious vote discipline and most likely still have 41 votes in the Senate.
How will Obama get much of anything done if the Senate Majority Leader isn’t willing to (and god I hate this phrase) go nuclear?
Shygetz
This country does NOT need a centrist party…both the Democratic and Republican parties swing through centrist ground from year to year, and either party is quite capable of nominating a centrist candidate. What needs to happen is the theocons/social cons need to get their own party that they can identify with, and let the traditional cons get back to bitching about taxes and entitlements and how pansy liberals are keeping America from spending 3x more on defense than the rest of the world combined.
What I REALLY hope happens is that, in the post-2008 meltdown, the theocons use their active and vocal base to take over the Republican platform, pushing out the traditional cons. The traditional cons start up their own third party based on low taxes, small government, and big defense, and attract Blue Dogs and some libertarians to their flag, becoming one of the major two parties and relegating the theocon Republican party to third party/regional status.
Cyrus
@dmsilev:
The ironic thing is, the vocal activists, the influential ones, in the Democratic Party aren’t all that left-wing. Or maybe I shouldn’t call that ironic but scary, or funny, or the true key difference.
Markos Moulitsas, founder of the Great Orange Satan, is a veteran and former Republican. He’s got in fights with feminists about hosting ads with sexist imagery. Howard Dean, the netroots choice, Vermont liberal, etc.? As governor, he had an A rating from the NRA, and a balanced budget (Vermont is the only state whose constitution doesn’t require one) despite lowering taxes. 2006 netroots favorite Jim Webb? Former Reagan appointee. Ned Lamont? Rich enough to practically self-fund his campaign.
The Democratic Party activists are very partisan, of course, but simply not ideologically extreme or rigid as a group. It’s possible to imagine a world where the Democratic Party has such a devoted core, or where the unhindered agenda of elected Democrats would be as extreme as the 2002-2006 Republicans were, but in the real world today that’s simply absurd.
ImJohnGalt
Well, for starters he could actually make them filibuster, instead of just saying they’re going to filibuster, and backing down.
I’d love to see the Republicans shut the business government down for 3 or 4 days so that the Democrats can’t raise the minimum wage, or pass a healthcare insurance improvement bill.
Seriously, I don’t get why they allow this to happen AT ALL.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
The next thing for the Republican party:
Schism ~> some time in the wilderness (hopefully 40 years)
Whoever gets to keep the GOP brand name gets to set the stage for what happens after. All bets are off until that decision is made.
cleek
first, he’ll have to get a Senate Majority Leader who will do that for him. Reid doesn’t seem interested.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
WTF are you talking about? Obama is not a party unto himself. He’s a Democrat with a centrist message. Just because he’s winning over Republicans doesn’t mean we should name a party after him, Jesus Christ!
Damned at Random
ImJohnGalt-
I agree completely with your filibuster point. I’ve been bitching about the mere threat of filibuster causing the Senate Dems to back down. Let them throw a public hissy-fit every time. See how that plays with the moderates.
Meanwhile, I’m praying they bring Santorum back in the post-McCain leadership. He has a photogenic family and time on his hands. And nobody delivers a bat-shit crazy quote like the Rickster.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
The ghost of Richard Nixon would like to have a word with you…
@Walker #29 and @Jim Pharo #48 have it right. Huckabee is the guy to watch. The GOP and the Dems have spent the last 100 years swapping places with each other and the GOP is now where the Dems were in the early 20th Cen – confined to a regional ghetto in the states of the former Confederacy and the High Plains and anarcho-libertarian Mountain West.
They will be stuck there until the GOP equivalent of FDR arrives on the scene – somebody who figures out that the best way to break out of that minority position is via a populist class warfare platform which appeals to the urban and suburban lower middle class with soak-the-rich rhetoric.
Expect to hear a lot about ties between the Obama administration and the banks and hedge funds, if Huckabee is able to put this type of campaign together in 2012.
Tlazolteotl
Francis Fukuyama?
Oy vey.
Jamey
Eric-Fucking-Cantor
The reanimated corpse of Rick Santorum
Newt "Newt Gingrich" Gingrich
plus C
I wonder if Bobby Jindal’s still going to be the next big thing. Despite Palin, they don’t seem to have figured out that just because someone’s popular in one state doesn’t mean it’ll translate to the other 49.
ATinNM
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII:
Re-read the first sentence of the first paragraph:
This organization may, or may not, have a continuing existence after this election.
IF IT DOES it will affect who gains control of the GOP.
NeoOstrakon
Unfortunately Matlock came out for Obama. So did Opie and the Fonz.
MizLiz
I keep hoping that the republican party will find a new "base". I am so tired of religious hatred, homophobia, racism, and all the rest of it. What ever happened to statesmen like Everett Dirksen? Okay, I’m showing my age a bit, most of y’all probably don’t know who I’m talking about. Just Google.
Chuck Butcher
The Republican House membership is going to take a blood bath and for the most part it will be the liberal/moderates. The Senate the same, but they may well hold the 41 votes and being on a 6 yr schedule will keep some of the lib/mods safe.
About the only Party leadership you could expect from the House would be the Cantor variety. For some reason they seem to think he’s good stuff. I’d be surprised to see McConnel go down, he’s getting a real scare but things really have to break against him. Would he get replaced?
McCain is done if he loses and he very probably will. Nobody likes losers and the Republicans hate them. Palin? As much as I’d like to see that happen, she’ll be a loser, she’s going to have problems in Alaska, there is no media market in Alaska, four years is a long time, two of which she still has to pretend to be governor. Huckabee won’t be the guy, he’s too nice for the angry bunch. Romney doesn’t have a platform for his voice, he’s out of office.
The House Rs can make angry speechs and get nothing done, the Senate can probably play roadblock. If they try it the Ds should make them pay. There is the crux. The House Rs can be asshats and not be made to pay for it. Chances are that is where the R leadership comes from.
I don’t think there are going to be many "adult" voices over the next 4 yrears in the R Party. The adults will not go Democratic, they will continue to try to play in the R pond. Let’s play reality, George Will as a Democrat? Or take your pick. I don’t think they’ll do well in their Party, this election would have been their time if it were going to work that way. None of them had to worry about being nice to the President, the R ground was theirs on R policy and they had no traction.
Obama can’t keep the campaign edifice intact, but he needs to use the access points it has produced to stay on the offensive with the people if he’s elected. That would push the Rs into further marginalization. I’m not promoting a Democratic hegemony, but to shift the center leftward once again will take some success in policy and continued selling of that shift. A few years of very right stupidity from the Rs should do that.
I don’t like extended periods of one Party rule but what the Rs do to be competitive is open to question if the Ds demostrate that government works when run by those who respect its function. Those thinking there will be a large leftward lurch under Obama aren’t paying attention.
I was making the point to our DPO Gun Owners Caucus Chair last night that our endeavor is long term, the same being true of a real left agenda – that one being generational. In order for those to be successful, the middle ground needs to be shifted in the desired direction. BTW – NRA rating of ‘A’ means not one thing about left/right, it means something about the 2nd – Dean was not in the least a rightwinger because of that ‘A’ any more than I am.
Quaker in a Basement
Stumpy!
Haw!
ImJohnGalt
@cleek:
Unless, of course, you’re Chris Dodd and Russ Feingold and are trying to prevent the FISA bill from passing. Then you actually have to filibuster.
I hope Reid dies in a fire – I’ll never forgive him for rushing through that dog’s bollocks. He HAS to be replaced in the next session.
I hope Obama goes back and has his new, improved DoJ look for criminal charges (FISA just immunized against civil suits).
tavella
Re Huckabee: I thought at the time that he was the most dangerous of the Republican primary candidates. He would have brought all the same energy into the theocon base, and he could run a populist campaign to bring in the middle.
Same for him as VP candidate. The fact that the Republican’s class consciousness kept them from selecting him and they went for Caribou Barbie instead makes me giggle.
I know a lot of people thought McCain was the most dangerous candidate, but I didn’t. For one simple fact: he was old, and there is nothing like an American electoral campaign to make age show. Ask Bob Dole. It’s brutal and draining.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
@ATinNM:
I wholeheartedly disagree:
1. Obama did nothing but improve upon the Democratic party’s structure, he did not create a NEW party (and if you think he did, would you like to cite for me who the Democratic party’s candidate is in the election, if not Barack Obama?)
2. It is not Democrat’s fault that the GOP went whacko and may end up in the wilderness, that’s their own fault.
P.S. – I don’t give a fuck about your first paragraph. Just because you wrote it doesn’t mean I have to agree with it.
CruzBustamove
O Boehner, where art thou?
Mitch Donahue
Rep Boehner had his moment and it was memorable.
Last year, I think it was, he drunkenly addressed the House while crying. It was a sight to remember.
Comrade Darkness
@Prose Before Hos:
Oh yeah, we are just days away. That reminds me that I kept expecting him to pull a fast one and swap someone else onto the ticket. Too late! Bwa hahahah.
Delia
The goopers have painted themselves into a corner with their populist base and that base is Palin. Palin is crystal meth, the drug of small town America. The addicts adore her and scream her name. They will rob, rape and kill for her. She’s ninety miles an hour down a dead-end street. She will rot out their teeth and what’s left of their brains. The conservative handlers started this party and there will be no one left to clean up the mess.
RON
ron paul will work with the democrats when times get tough next year… remember to seek out the good in a minority party or the bad will come back stronger (palin)… take this advice.