November 10, 2008
Centrism has finally become trendy. I always sensed some fear within the hearts of the more outspoken conservative pundits that an Obama Administration would usher in a neo-Camelot era of fashionable liberalism. What we are seeing so far, is a movement toward Centrist Chic. Everyone is getting on the bandwagon. On Sunday’s Face The Nation, Bob Schieffer reported that President-elect Obama pulled the plug on a planned fireworks show in Grant Park for election night, to enforce his own “no gloating” rule. Additionally, the Obama “inner circle” has assured us that we can expect some Republican faces in the next Administration, if not the Cabinet.
Prominent Republican leaders are repeatedly asked: “Where does the GOP go from here?” Their answer should be: to the center. I could never understand why the McCain campaign fought so hard to win over the “hard right” base, once the Republican nomination was secured. In my posting “Which Way To The White House?” on June 16, I expressed my astonishment concerning McCain’s campaign strategy:
Much of the criticism directed against McCain’s campaign has concerned the slim turnouts at his rallies, his speech delivery and his failure (or unwillingness) to keep economic issues on the front burner. Although quite a bit of criticism has questioned his ability to carry “the base” in November, precious little has been focused on how he expects to win over “undecided” voters and those from the center. McCain has to face up to the fact that “the base” has no other alternative than to vote for him. If he expects to win the election, he would be wise to distance himself from the policies of the Bush administration, rather than cling to them as some sort of political life-raft.
In response to the “Where does the GOP go from here?” question, we are finally hearing the right answer. The most surprising response came from a gentleman who earned the nickname “Bullet” from his old boss, Karl Rove. Steve Schmidt is a rather tall, yet stout, individual with a bald head, resembling a giant bullet. He was appointed to the position of “senior strategist” for the McCain campaign on July 2. Schmidt has been blamed for McCain’s strategic failures in this recent quest for the Presidency. On November 9, The Daily Beast website featured an interview with Schmidt, conducted by Ana Marie Cox. The Bullet made the following observations about the future direction for the GOP:
The party in the Northeast is all but extinct; the party on the West Coast is all but extinct; the party has lost the mid-South states—Virginia, North Carolina—and the party is in deep trouble in the Rocky Mountain West, and there has to be a message and a vision that is compelling to people in order for them to come back and to give consideration to the Republican Party again.
The Republican Party was long known as the party that competently managed government. We’ve lost our claim to that. The Republican Party was known as the party that was serious on national security issues. The mismanagement of the war has stripped that away. So there is much to do in rebuilding the brand of the party, what it stands for, and what it’s about in a way that Americans find appealing. . . . The Republican Party wants to, needs to, be able to represent, you know, not only conservatives, but centrists as well. And the party that controls the center is the party that controls the American electorate.
In the Washington Post of November 9, another prominent conservative, George Will, expressed dismay over the misplaced deference granted to the “hard right” wing of the Republican Party:
Some of the Republicans’ afflictions are self-inflicted. Some conservatives who are gluttons for punishment are getting a head start on ensuring a 2012 drubbing by prescribing peculiar medication for a misdiagnosed illness. They are monomaniacal about media bias, which is real but rarely decisive, and unhinged by their anger about the loathing of Sarah Palin by similarly deranged liberals. These conservatives, confusing pugnacity with a political philosophy, are hot to anoint Palin, an emblem of rural and small-town sensibilities, as the party’s presumptive 2012 nominee.
These conservatives preen as especially respectful of regular — or as Palin says, “real” — Americans, whose tribune Palin purports to be. But note the argument that the manipulation of Americans by “the mainstream media” explains the fact that the more Palin campaigned, the less Americans thought of her qualifications. This argument portrays Americans as a bovine herd — or as inert clay in the hands of wily media, which only Palin’s conservative celebrators can decipher and resist.
Most Republican pundits are acutely aware of the consequences resulting from further rampant inbreeding of the so-called “base” within their party. A resulting blindness to the opinions of those outside “the family” could send the GOP on a path to oblivion. The inability of the Republicans to “connect” with young people, to any measurable degree, was discussed by former Reagan speechwriter, Peggy Noonan, in the November 7 Wall Street Journal:
Though it is also true that many of the indexes for the GOP are dreadful, especially that they lost the vote of two-thirds of those aged 18 to 29. They lost a generation! If that continues in coming years, it will be a rolling wave of doom.
The Republican Party will survive the “Tragedy of 2008” because there are still a good number of Republicans with their heads properly screwed onto their necks. Don’t take my word for it . . . Go ask The Bullet.
Go Ask The Bullet
November 10, 2008
Centrism has finally become trendy. I always sensed some fear within the hearts of the more outspoken conservative pundits that an Obama Administration would usher in a neo-Camelot era of fashionable liberalism. What we are seeing so far, is a movement toward Centrist Chic. Everyone is getting on the bandwagon. On Sunday’s Face The Nation, Bob Schieffer reported that President-elect Obama pulled the plug on a planned fireworks show in Grant Park for election night, to enforce his own “no gloating” rule. Additionally, the Obama “inner circle” has assured us that we can expect some Republican faces in the next Administration, if not the Cabinet.
Prominent Republican leaders are repeatedly asked: “Where does the GOP go from here?” Their answer should be: to the center. I could never understand why the McCain campaign fought so hard to win over the “hard right” base, once the Republican nomination was secured. In my posting “Which Way To The White House?” on June 16, I expressed my astonishment concerning McCain’s campaign strategy:
Much of the criticism directed against McCain’s campaign has concerned the slim turnouts at his rallies, his speech delivery and his failure (or unwillingness) to keep economic issues on the front burner. Although quite a bit of criticism has questioned his ability to carry “the base” in November, precious little has been focused on how he expects to win over “undecided” voters and those from the center. McCain has to face up to the fact that “the base” has no other alternative than to vote for him. If he expects to win the election, he would be wise to distance himself from the policies of the Bush administration, rather than cling to them as some sort of political life-raft.
In response to the “Where does the GOP go from here?” question, we are finally hearing the right answer. The most surprising response came from a gentleman who earned the nickname “Bullet” from his old boss, Karl Rove. Steve Schmidt is a rather tall, yet stout, individual with a bald head, resembling a giant bullet. He was appointed to the position of “senior strategist” for the McCain campaign on July 2. Schmidt has been blamed for McCain’s strategic failures in this recent quest for the Presidency. On November 9, The Daily Beast website featured an interview with Schmidt, conducted by Ana Marie Cox. The Bullet made the following observations about the future direction for the GOP:
In the Washington Post of November 9, another prominent conservative, George Will, expressed dismay over the misplaced deference granted to the “hard right” wing of the Republican Party:
Most Republican pundits are acutely aware of the consequences resulting from further rampant inbreeding of the so-called “base” within their party. A resulting blindness to the opinions of those outside “the family” could send the GOP on a path to oblivion. The inability of the Republicans to “connect” with young people, to any measurable degree, was discussed by former Reagan speechwriter, Peggy Noonan, in the November 7 Wall Street Journal:
The Republican Party will survive the “Tragedy of 2008” because there are still a good number of Republicans with their heads properly screwed onto their necks. Don’t take my word for it . . . Go ask The Bullet.