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June 19, 2013
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 The GOP’s Rational Reality ShowPosted on Dec 4, 2011
The contest for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination has been described as a reality show and a circus. But what’s happening inside the GOP is quite rational and easily explained. The obvious Republican nominee was Texas Gov. Rick Perry—obvious because his government-bashing, ideology-mongering, secessionist-flirting persona was a perfect fit for a Republican primary electorate that has shifted far to the right of Ronald Reagan. The yearning for someone like Perry was inevitable. He combined the right views—actually, very right views—with experience as a chief executive that made him seem like somebody ready to be president. Consider that even before he had gotten into the race, mere word that he might run sent Republican voters scrambling his way. He already had 18 percent to Romney’s 23 percent in a late July Gallup poll. Michele Bachmann was next at 13 percent. At that point, Newt Gingrich was at 6 percent and Herman Cain at 4 percent. After Perry announced his candidacy, he soared. The Aug. 17-21 Gallup survey had Perry at 29 percent, Romney at 17 percent, Bachmann down to 10 percent and Gingrich and Cain both at 4 percent. (Ron Paul, holding aloft the libertarian banner, holds his core voters no matter what’s happening around him. Paul was at 10 percent in July, 13 percent in August.) Another survey at the time by Public Policy Polling put Perry at 33 percent to 20 percent for Romney. Advertisement Yet Romney still can’t take off, and a lot of ink and online pixels have been spent trying to explain why. I see four factors holding Romney back. That he is a flip-flopper is no longer a charge by his opponents; it is taken as a given. His refusal to repudiate his own Massachusetts health care plan goes down badly with conservatives. His public personality is, well, stiff and patrician enough that the Internet is now full of videos of Romney’s awkwardness. And he is a Mormon, a problem for some conservative evangelicals. It’s outrageous that Romney’s religion is an issue, and anyone analyzing its impact has a moral obligation to say so. Alas, that does not mean it has no effect. And Romney ought to be proud of his health initiative—although it’s entirely disingenuous of him to deny the strong links between what he did and what President Obama fought to get enacted. But what’s going on is not just a Romney problem. The Republican Party’s core electorate has changed radically since 2008—and even then, John McCain won the nomination against the wishes of many on the Republican right because the opposition to him was splintered. A party that lived by the tea crowd in 2010 is being severely hobbled by them now. The Republican right wants the kind of purity that led it to take candidates such as Cain and Bachmann with great seriousness for a while. The same folks took Sharron Angle, Christine O’Donnell and Joe Miller seriously in 2010 Senate primaries, too. None of them got elected. Perry once seemed the answer to this problem. Now that he, Cain and Bachmann have faltered, lonely conservative hearts have turned to Gingrich. This is odd, since Gingrich can give Romney an excellent run in any flip-flopping contest. But Gingrich has always kept at least one foot in the camp of movement conservatism, and he talks like a movement guy. This could be enough. The question is whether he has the discipline not to say something really foolish between now and Jan. 3, the date of the Iowa caucuses. (Free advice to Newt: Stop talking about yourself in the third person as a world historical figure.) There is talk of the “Republican establishment” swooping in to save matters, and things certainly seem ripe for a draft write-in campaign for some new candidate. But the Republican establishment, such as it is, is essentially powerless. It sold its soul to the tea party, sat by silently as extremist rhetoric engulfed the GOP, and figured that swing voters would eventually overlook all this to cast a vote against a bad economy. That’s still Romney’s bet, yet his failure to break through suggests the right wing will not be trifled with. Republican leaders unleashed forces that may eat their party alive. And the only Republican really enjoying what’s happening is Newt Gingrich.
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By karl1146, December 6, 2011 at 1:56 pm Link to this comment
The best outcome for the country is for the Republicans to put forward the best possible candidate. Unfortunately, when one of their potential candidates proves to be less than optimal (think Herman Cain - in that case, it’s not really about the allegations, it’s about his odd response to them), there’s an impluse to blame “the liberal media” instead taking a long, hard look at putting forward the very best candidate.
The voters that decide elections in America tend to be non-ideological. They’ll vote for the candidate that seems most competent - whether that’s Obama or Reagan. If conservatives want their candidate to succeed, and to give the American people a fair choice, they shouldn’t put forward a badly flawed candidate who happens to claim to agree with them ideologically.
Report thisBy Outraged, December 5, 2011 at 8:38 pm Link to this comment
Really Mr. Dionne….. just because we can see what’s
going on does not make it “rational”. It’s complete
insanity in the Republican Party, because
crazy people like to go for bizarre rides. It
solidifies their position -at least in their minds- that the world has gone
crazy. (you’re thinking that this makes no sense, but
it makes all the sense in the world…..it doesn’t
however…make it “rational”)
Gary Kamiya in an article at Salon explains some of
the history of the insanity, he more or less begins
this way:
“And the presidential campaign is not the only
example of such regressive behavior and thought. The
reaction of the Tea Party (which for all intents and
purposes has become the Republican Party) to the mild
and innocuous centrist Barack Obama — a president
little different in his governing style, with due
allowances being made for changed circumstances, from
Dwight D. Eisenhower — is so irrational that it is
difficult even to grasp what president it is talking
about.
The Tea Party’s sense of limitless outrage, its
bizarrely overwrought rhetoric of betrayal and
dispossession, is closer to the rage of a toddler
than the reasoning of an adult. The anger appears to
predate its putative cause. The institutional party
has behaved in exactly the same way: for three years,
Republicans in Congress have essentially been having
a temper tantrum.”
http://politics.salon.com/2011/12/05/the_infantile_style_in_american_politics/
A good article.
Report thisBy blogdog, December 5, 2011 at 7:38 pm Link to this comment
TD editors do a pretty good job of ignoring ME essential news
several events of late totally ignored:
Russian Navy backs Syria, delivers weapons and S-300 air defense system
Special to WorldTribune.com
http://www.worldnewstribune.com/2011/11/27/russian-navy-backs-syria-delivers-weapons-and-s-300-air-defense-system/
LONDON — Russia is said to have sent warships to deliver an
advanced air defense system to Syria.
Arab diplomatic sources said the Russian Navy arrived in the Syrian
port of Tartous in late November and brought weapons and supplies to the
regime of President Bashar Assad.
Iran Captures US stealth spy drone
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/12/05/us-military-sources-iran-has-missing-us-drone/
Saif Al-Gaddafi held by Zinten, not being transfered to NTC while Zinten
Report thisnegotiate peace terms and potential future cooperation with Green Resistance
http://libyasos.blogspot.com/2011/11/news-about-saif-al-islam-gadhaffi.html
By oddsox, December 5, 2011 at 5:31 pm Link to this comment
HA!
Dionne got the memo not to ignore Ron Paul, so he put him between parentheses.
Such fun, all this.
—
Meanwhile, is everyone, even TruthDig, just ignoring the Iranian nuke plants and missile sights blowing themselves up?
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iran-bomb-20111205,0,7550482.story
or, earlier, here:
Report thishttp://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/a-second-iranian-nuclear-facility-has-exploded-as-diplomatic-tensions-rise-between-the-west-and-tehran/story-e6frg6so-1226209996774
By chris galkin, December 5, 2011 at 4:17 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
I am so confused by this circus. We have watched for three years while the republicans blocked Obama at every turn in order to see him (and the country, btw)fail so that he would not get reelected….the master plan…ingenious. Now it is time to reap the benefits of this treacherous plan and they send in a clown car full of unelectibles…am I missing something???
Report thisBy berniem, December 5, 2011 at 2:46 pm Link to this comment
WARNING TO THE FLAT-EARTHERS! You can only sail to the right so far before you fall off!
Report thisBy blogdog, December 5, 2011 at 10:22 am Link to this comment
Primary Obama Now has been created to promote a primary challenge to
Obama based on his numerous failures and betrayals, to either reform him or
dump him - let the people decide.
http://primaryobamanow.com/
Click on your candidate choice and VOTE!
displayed randomly
Russ Feingold - total votes (5.2%)
Marcy Kaptur - total votes (17.9%)
Barbara Lee - total votes (3.2%)
Bernie Sanders - total votes (9.8%)
Peter DeFazio - total votes (5.6%)
Dennis Kucinich - total votes (58.2%)
____________________
of the people…
by the people…
for the people…
____________________
http://highcrimes.org/en/file-your-own-report/
File your own report!
Was your country also part of NATO’s war against Libya in 2011?
If so, filing criminal charges for war crimes has never been easier.
Just download the template found here, fill in the blanks and send it to the
police or relevant prosecuting authority in your country.
When you do this, please let us know and we will be happy to include
information about the report on this site. We may even be able to setup and
handle a petition functionality for you, so people can join the process after you
initiated it, like here (Swedish) and here (list of supporters).
The following countries were part of the NATO-led war against Libya in 2011:
Belgium - Bulgaria - Canada - Denmark - France - Greece - Italy - Jordan -
Report thisNetherlands - Norway - Qatar - Romania - Sweden - Turkey - UAE - UK - USA
By oddsox, December 5, 2011 at 9:45 am Link to this comment
Gingrich has the best chance against Obama in a debate.
Report thisRomney has the best chance against Obama in an election.
By John Poole, December 5, 2011 at 6:50 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
I feel that no one sane today would seek to be president of the US including the
Report thisincumbent. Who the Republicans choose to run in 2012 is irrelevant. My concern
is that Obama will seem a viable alternative in comparison. Obama fooled us
brilliantly and he’s clever enough to continue to fool even discerning types by his
occasional fake self deprecating humor.
By Patrick, December 5, 2011 at 5:34 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
As an Atheist, I see no problem with criticizing Romney for his religion. It’s kooky — just like Protestantism, Catholicism, Islamism, Judaism, etc.
What if someone ran for president and said they were a devout Zarathustrian? Wouldn’t E.J. dismiss this candidate?
I don’t see any difference.
Report thisBy blogdog, December 4, 2011 at 7:35 pm Link to this comment
of course it will get weirder and weirder until…
the GOP big circus blows up into an incomprehensibly abstruse 3-ring fools
paradise sometime around March, of which no pundit can get enough, and
wherewith the back-room scramble (already in progress) coalesces. A
messenger is dispatched to summon the saviour for both the party and the
nation.
El Salvadore will not reach for this (far too vulgar), nor campaign as a low,
despicable ‘politician’. Rather, he will figuratively mount a blinding, alabaster
charge and parade from hamlet to hamlet announcing, in the grandest and
vaguest of rhetoric, his deliverance of the nation from its heretofore feckless
leadership… of whom do I speak?
None other, of course, then the Victor of Mesopotamia, the Thinking Mans War
Monger, a virtual Deus Ex Machina…
drum roll & TA DAAHH!! Generalissimo Petraeus!
Report this