Posted on 05/14/2008 7:17:14 AM PDT by meandog
The last couple of months have been springtime in paradise for Republicans: the loveliest of all possible seasons. They have been watching two Democratic presidential candidates in an endless battle to destroy each other—a process that does not appear to enhance the chance that the eventual nominee will win in November.
A recent Gallup poll showed John McCain leading both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in a head-to-head matchup. All this before Republicans even begin publicizing the worst that can be said about either of two candidates whose alleged defects provide a supremely target-rich environment.
But it's easy to let the individuals involved obscure larger factors that may prove more important. In a hurricane, even handsome, well-built boats can end up underwater. And right now, the GOP looks as though it may be sailing into a perfect storm.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
The Chicaogo Tribune is in the tank for Dems.....they’re HOPING for the “perfect storm”
Unfortunately Bush didn’t do it all by his lonesome. There were far too many others in the house and senate who went along with him. Yeah he was the leader and gets the bulk of the blame, but the Republican Party shot itself in the foot by going along to get along.
The current crop of GOP leaders aren’t exactly showering themselves with favors, either.
APf
If it was only GWB there wouldn't be much of a problem. The problem is that the Republican Party has moved so far to the left that it's made itself indistinguishable from The Dems, who offer even more goodies. From the RINOs to the RNC to Mr. Amnesty himself Juan MeCain the Republican Party has imploded.
I think it’s a combination of President Bush and Republicans trying to outspend and outfreebie the Democrats once they got into the majority. They have been on a downhill slide since. And still, the GOP offers no clear concise message. Partially because most of what the “base” would want to hear conflicts with the candidate they chose to run.
Ugh. What a terribly disappointing missed opportunity this Dem. primary/nomination process has turned out to be. If we had a strong party, and a strong candidate, then it would have been easier to capitalize on this opportunity, but alas, we have a highly unpopular President, no clear message, and a candidate who is lukewarm.
He is sailing into a storm all right and he is going to sink unless he gets over this crap about running a no negative campaign and that stupid so called global warming BS he seems to believe is happening.
Ultimately the spending-addiction fiasco that is the current Republican party is Bush’s responsibility. He’s the decider. No vetoes until ‘06.
Keep your powder dry, folks. The worst is yet to come.
Do not ask for an explanation of why liberals think this way because only another liberal would have a clue.
Do not ask for an explanation of why liberals think this way because only another liberal would have a clue.
Free trade is costing the GOP districts in the South. Many of these southern small towns rely on one or two factories for local jobs. Supporting policies that will accelerate their move overseas is not helping to get GOP votes.
Sailing into a storm? We’re talking McCain. It’s probably a fireball.
Are you aware of the foreign companies that have and still are building factory’s in the South?
Airbus.
Just reading your average Freeper's comments regarding McCain will tell you such. Most of us know that either way, McCain or a RAT, things are going to get much worse for this Republic.
McCain is napping right now.
Wake him up in October.
yes, but it cannot be denied that Republicans in general are demoralized because of GWB's amnesty proposal, McCain's wimpy cave in to the Cap & trade global warming hoax.
Not to mention the number of Republicans who ended up being foot-tapping homo's.
I seriously believe that some Republican leader in Washington MUST stand up and proclaim that America must immediately launch plans to drill and extract as much crude oil, coal, natural gas, and methane from every place on land and in the sear where it can be safely obtained.
A strong Presidential candidate would proclaim it necessary, in the short term, to explore for and develop as much oil as humanly possible.
A 10-year plan to increase our domestic oil supply by 25% ------
I truly believe a majority of Americans would stand up and cheer, including many Democrats.
If the Democrats pick up a few more seats in Congress, President McCain will be a lame duck on Day-1 of his administration which will lead to Hillary in 2012.
Credit where the credit is due. Actually, it's not "a steep hill." It's Mount Everest.
How much of a factor is McCain blaming Bush for Katrina in Mississippi?
A hill is even steeper for Mc Cain supporting environmental wackos (huge scam called climat change).
We have three clowns running for President, McCain is the biggest loser from them all.
GOP will be squashed in November on all levels due to economy, unpopular war, demographics (baby boomers + huge crowd of freshly registered new young democratic voters).
GOP abandoned conservative principles and have nothing to offer to most conservatives and independent voters.
GOP is doomed for long time to come.
How can you sail into a storm when you have a boat to sail on?
I think they shot a little higher than the foot...
How would he know?
The 'horse whisperer' is in the stages of Alzheimer's.
If McCain runs as a RINO, then the Republican party may indeed be headed toward the perfect storm.
Do we want more Democrats in Congress and Obama in the White House?
While I might agree that the GOP is doomed for some time to come, I attribute most to the incompetence of the president and his uninspiring leadership. IMO, Americans always want a quick fix and, when they don't get it, they become frustrated and angry. The quick fix was there after the initial stages of Iraq in both cases of "Read My Lips" Bush and "Mission Accomplished" Bush in that an overwhelming force could have produced quick results. Instead, "Read My Lips" Bush unexplicably pulled a stalemate out of an 100-hour triumph by refusing to kill what remained of Sadaam and his Republican Guard in Gulf War '91; and "Mission Accomplished" Bush somehow refused to grasp the logic that he would need somewhat on the order of at least 75 percent of the same force strength and commitment that his old man had to complete the task for a quick victory in 2002.
Why "they will welcome us as heroes" when we essentially pulled the rug out from under any Iraqi resistance in '91 was the believed philosophy is beyond me. I can only suppose that "Mission Accomplished" Bush really believed Rumsfeld when he told him he could do it on the cheap...oh well, like father like son! Two bums!
I don’t get it. I read the Mississippi candidate is very conservative. If that’s the case, how did he lose? If conservatives were angry at Bush and RNC being RINOs, why didn’t they turn out yesterday to support a Republican conservative candidate? Unless, there’s not enough conservatives in that district...
Are they building enough factories to replace the ones that left the US? I think economic data says no. Otherwise the former mill town GOP districts would vote for GOP candidates over Dems. We have not fully digested the effects of NAFTA, MFN, WTO on on main street, GWB wants to add more free trade agreements to the mix. This year the GOP lost the blue collar Reagan Dems on job security issues. Without the blue collar Reagan Dems the GOP are not going to win.
I would pose that RINOs have done so much damage regards the electorate that anything called "republican" will suffer, whether RINO or actual conservative. Most voters don't distinguish, I guess.
i9 absolutely agree....I’m voting for mccain.........but wee need to see huge changes. W’re now the “spine-less” party in a leaderless nation.
I agree.
I would think that there are not enough 'actual' conservatives out there, even in MS. The moderates may like the freebies (which W and RNC provide), but don't like Iraq war.
1. A McCain victory would likely lead to more Democrats in Congress than an Obama win.
2. "Do we want ... Obama in the White House?" is a rhetorical question based in the politics-of-fear that gave us McCain in the first place. There are as many if not more potential downsides to having McCain in the White House as there are having Obama in there. One of the DOWNSIDES to McCain is that he is a sure loser for conservative principle and the identity of the Republican party as a small-government alternative to the Democrat party. One of the UPSIDES to Obama is that it would probably result in more Republicans in Congress come the next mid-term elections.
Heh heh. Now that is funny.
In time the price differences will ameliorate as the workers overseas ask for and get more pay for their work and the manufacturer must pass these higher costs along in the form of higher prices. It sure won't happen quickly but it will happen. The unions in this nation are their own worst enemy and have destroyed themselves with no outside help. If you want to know why jobs are gone then partly the reason lies there.
People for the most part are ignorant about how an economy works and what is going on in this one. They turn on the news and stupidly sit their absorbing distortion after distortion and believe all they hear. After all if they said it on TV it must be true,,,,right.
Maybe we will have our clocks cleaned in Nov, who knows. If it happens it will be because of the concerted joint effort of an ultra liberal media and a far left Democrat party who will foster any lie in their quest for power and the pure stupidity of the population at large.
We indeed get the government we deserve.
What does this mean?
I live in the subject MS district; I voted for the Republican candidate (Davis), and I'm sad to see that he lost. Out of curiosity, I just got done doing a little bit of research and number crunching. Here are some things that I discovered:
In the 2004 Presidential Election, the 1st Congressional District in MS voted 63% Bush (R) vs. 37% Kerry (D). In the special election yesterday, this same district voted 46% Davis (R) vs. 54% Childers (D). What's more interesting, however, is the number of voters that turned out for the vote yesterday in this district. In the 2004 Presidential Election, 190,957 people voted for Bush vs. 114,414 for Kerry. In yesterday's special election, the (R) candidate received 49,314 votes (roughly 26% of the number of votes Bush received in 2004). The Democrat candidate, however, received 57,276 votes yesterday -- exactly 50% the number who voted for Kerry in 2004.
I'm no political pundit, but this makes it pretty clear to me that, at least in my district (but probably holds true around the country), Democrats are currently much more energized to vote than the Republicans. To answer your specific questions, paudio, I think that conservatives are just, plain and simple, disheartened. Even though there are plenty of conservatives in this district (and across the country), there is simply no true leader in the Conservative movement right now. The Republican party is no longer the Conservative party -- so who are true Conservatives supposed to support.
I voted for Davis, and I think he would have been a great Congressman. And I'll probably vote for McCain, but only because I don't want the disaster that Obama would be if he gets the presidency.
Part of me, however, is sort of glad that Davis lost yesterday. With all of the attention this race received -- Cheney was even in town on Monday! -- maybe, just maybe -- somebody (or somebodies) in the Republican party will wake up and realize that the GOP needs to change course immediately or the ship is going to sink very, very soon. In fact, I am somewhat concerned that we've already struck the iceberg, and the Republican Party "leadership" is busy playing music on the deck while the ship is already going under...
For what it's worth, my county (DeSoto) -- which includes Southaven, where Davis is Mayor -- voted 74.9% Davis vs. 25.1% Childers yesterday. In 2004, DeSoto County voted 72.6% for Bush...
McCain thinks he can win without conservative support. Guess we will find out...he seems hellbent and making sure we don’t vote for him.
I think we may be starting to see a pattern here. It certainly seems to be true of the last three special-election seats republicans just lost lost - the victorious dems ran as equally if not more conservative than the other guy with the R after his name.
McCain IS a rat.
John McCain is supported by all Republican leaders including Fred Thompson, Mike Huckabee, and Mitt Romney. Maybe you are in the wrong party.
Absolute nonsense. If you can’t see the difference between the GOP and the Dims then your blind. More than likely, you’re lying.
Well maybe you are at the wrong site. This is a conservative forum. Many people here are not with the GOP unless they run a candidate that they can support.
This site boasts nothing about being a GOP forum. You must have failed to notice that.
There is an old adage of kings - the king is the boat, and the people are the ocean, if the boat causes too much turbulence, the sea will sink the boat. In pure economic terms you are right, but leadership based on policies devoid of human concerns is political suicide. Globalism will benefit some and hurt others because it will cause structural economic changes. Loss of manufacturing, competition from lower cost H-1B high tech workers, illegal immigrants in non tech jobs, all tacitly approved by the GOP under the guise of free markets and laise faire capitalism, basicly creates swaths of wage depression and quality of life in sizeable geographical sectors of the US. If the US government intends to embark on such a policy, what is their fall back plan to take care of the huge areas severely dislocated by such a policy? If the answer is every man for himself and there are more free trade agreements in the pipeline to cause further turbulence, there will be a political reaction from the affected areas and the areas that anticipate affects. Dem blue collar have been waiting in the abandoned rust belt and small mill towns for over a decade and they decided that there needs to be a change. They voted in 2006 and they will vote again in 2008. Hopefully by 2012 the GOP will figure it out.
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