The biggest political spectacular is the emerging battle for the political soul of the Republican Party which really is a battle for the political soul of the United States itself.
In one corner: the Republican “Blue Bloods” (as defined by Sarah Palin), consisting of the Republican establishment and the still-powerful Bush family. In the other: the Hot Bloods (as defined by me), consisting of members of the party’s talk radio political culture, Tea Party movement, and Palin’s supporters.
Right now all the hapless Barack Obama has to worry about are rumblings of discontent within his party involving liberals that some speculate may challenge in him 2012. These reports are soon proven false. Sitting Presidents forced into primaries often become Political Ex-Presidents Walking, but right now Obama seems to be more in danger of another elbow in the mouth while playing basketball (particularly if it’s with John Boehner) than a serious primary challenge.
The emerging Republican chasm is different story.
With most moderate Republicans exiled or having fled the GOP, the battle is on between compassionate conservatism’s conservators and hard-right insurgents who want to make the Republican Party ideologically pure.
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The catalyst is Palin, de facto head of the Tea Party and the wing of the GOP that feels the Bushes strayed too far from the mega-partisanship espoused by Rush Limbaugh.
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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.