When someone wins a Presidential election there’s no shortage of advice: everyone says they have the perfect advice on what chart to course, who will be just perfect for the cabinet and how tough they should be on the opposition.
But it’s even worse when a party loses big — as the Republicans did last week. Advice is coupled with finger pointing, recriminations and a lot of self-serving posturing. And if you look at American political history, no political party is in the “wilderness” forever and few politicians are never forgiven for their losses.
The advice is now pouring in — big time — for Republicans..and for the party’s losing candidate Senator John McCain. And here are two MUST READS:
1. Ron Beasley on the continued debate over how Republicans can get out of the wilderness.
2. The Wall Street Journal’s William McGurn on what John McCain needs to do now regarding his former running mate Gov. Sarah Palin. [UPDATE: Be sure to read Dick Polman on Palin’s response to things now being said about her…]
Rest assured: Lots more advice will be offered the GOP, Democrats, McCain, President Elect Obama — some of it on this site.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.