Right Thinking From The West Coast’s Lee:
When Bush ran for president he presented himself as being a certain type of man, and once in office became something totally different, especially in his second term. (Who woulda thunk that the first MBA president could — up the deficit this badly.) McCain is, well, McCain. You know where he stands on things. And, like (Andrew Sullivan), I think I would much prefer a McCain-led GOP to one led by Bush. While I realize that both men have their faults, and that I don’t agree with either of them 100% of the time, McCain is a better man and would make a better president. And, short of McCain or perhaps Condi, I don’t see a whole lot of hope for the GOP in 2006.
Bush, by being so polarizing a figure, has literally forced the country to the left, at least in terms of their vote. While many people may agree with the GOP on basic ideological grounds, Bush has left such a bad taste in many people’s mouths they’ll either refrain from voting or will vote for the Democrats just to shake things up a little bit.
This is what we’re finding in talking with many folks as we travel who voted for GWB because they didn’t like things about the Democratic presidential candidates or the Democrats. Many people are tired of having to have a polarizing figure at the top of the political heap — and the problem is that the GOP as a party is falling lockstep into this political style. And gleefully so (just surf news accounts and many weblogs: there is a thirst for this kind of political turmoil).
We’ve been definitely picking up that there may be a chunk of folks — perhaps large — who intend to vote for the Ds as a protest vote, or simply not vote if they don’t like the D candidate.
That’s why the political extravaganza that played out in the House yesterday in the long run could be damaging to the GOP.
If you have a situation with the GOP having a solidified, enthusiastic conservative base, the Demmies having a unified anti-GOP party and a bunch of people who basically can’t bring themselves to be associated with the GOP in its present incarnation even if they agree with them on some things…what’s likely to happen? If this seeming trend becomes more evident look for some GOPers to try to do something about it.
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.