Are Republicans facing a political tsunami?

May 13th, 2008 by JAZZ SHAW

A raft of news items portending bad tidings for the GOP this November has some Democratic party enthusiasts rubbing their hands in glee. One example of this can be found at the left wing blog Liberal & Progressive Politics and Perspectives where Deborah White feels that Republicans Ignoring Republicans is a Good Thing for Democrats. As always, we would encourage you to click through and read the entire article, but here are a few points of interest.

An excellent sign of impending good fortune for Democrats in the November ‘08 elections is that Republican pundits are obsessed with the Democratic candidates, and all-but-ignore conservative candidates running for office.

Don’t believe me? Try and find a couple conservative columnists/commentators not dwelling endlessly on Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

The author then goes on to point out a half dozen or so signs of trouble brewing for the Republicans. All are worthy of debate, but here’s one interesting item.

Democratic turnout for the party nomination race has been energizing and record-shattering, while Republican popular vote has been at lethargic levels. For instance, in the North Carolina primaries held on May 6th, 1,571,337 votes were cast for Democrats vs. only 518,224 votes cast for Republicans (with 99% of precincts reporting).

A sign of possible disaster for John McCain: in North Carolina, as in many other Republican primaries, less than 75% of Republican votes were cast for the party’s presumptive nominee. Rep. Ron Paul and Gov. Mike Huckabee collectively received over 100,000 votes, reflecting the dissatisfaction of Republican libertarians and Republican religious right voters, respectively.

Other items submitted include recent GOP losses in special House elections and the emergence of Bob Barr as a conservative, Libertarian option. White concludes with the following note of thanks.

So please understand that lately, it’s begun to amuse me that conservative pundits are foolishly besotted by the Democratic race, while they ignore addressing and fixing problems in their own house.

All I have to say is this: Thank you! Your attention, criticisms and vast publicity are helping to make Democratic candidates smarter, stronger and more battle-ready, while leaving Republican candidates unprepared for the tough elections that lay ahead.

What do you think? Is the conservative commentariat obsessing over Democrats while ignoring warning signs in their own party to their peril? Or is the focus currently on Democrats only because their race is still going on while the GOP has already settled their differences? We link, you decide.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 at 6:19 am and is filed under Newsweek Blogitics, Republican Party, Democratic Party, 2008 Elections, Politics. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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