Frank Rich: The Moose Stops Here

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: The Moose Stops Here
By FRANK RICH
Published: November 16, 2008

....Will the 2008 G.O.P. go the way of the 1936 G.O.P., which didn’t reclaim the White House until 1952? Even factoring in the Democrats’ time-honored propensity for self-immolation, it’s not beyond reason. The Republicans are in serious denial. A few heretics excepted, they hope to blame all their woes on their unpopular president, the inept McCain campaign and their party’s latent greed for budget-busting earmarks.

The trouble is far more fundamental than that. The G.O.P. ran out of steam and ideas well before George W. Bush took office and Tom DeLay ran amok, and it is now more representative of 20th-century South Africa during apartheid than 21st-century America. The proof is in the vanilla pudding. When David Letterman said that the 10 G.O.P. presidential candidates at an early debate looked like “guys waiting to tee off at a restricted country club,” he was the first to correctly call the election.

On Nov. 4, that’s roughly the sole constituency that remained loyal to the party — minus its wealthiest slice, a previously solid G.O.P. stronghold that turned blue this year (in a whopping swing of 34 percentage points). The Republicans lost every region of the country by double digits except the South, which they won by less than double digits (9 points). They took the South only because McCain, who ran roughly even with Obama among whites in every other region, won Southern whites by 38 percentage points....

***

In defeat, the party’s thinking remains unchanged. Its leaders once again believe they can bamboozle the public into thinking they’re the “party of Lincoln” by pushing forward a few minority front men or women. The reason why they are promoting (Sarah) Palin and the recently elected Indian-American governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, as the party’s “future” is not just that they are hard-line social conservatives; they are also the only prominent Republican officeholders under 50 who are not white men. The G.O.P. will have to dip down to a former one-term lieutenant governor of Maryland, Michael Steele, to put a black public face on its national committee....

***

(I)n the marathon of Palin interviews last week, the single most revealing exchange had nothing to do with her wardrobe or the “jerks” (as she called them) around McCain. It came instead when Wolf Blitzer of CNN asked for some substance by inviting her to suggest “one or two ideas” that Republicans might have to offer. “Well, a lot of Republican governors have really good ideas for our nation,” she responded, without specifying anything except that “it’s all about free enterprise and respecting equality.” Well, yes, but surely there’s some actual new initiative worth mentioning, Blitzer followed up. “Gah!” replied the G.O.P.’s future. “Nothing specific right now!”...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/16/opinion/16rich.html?hp

[senseandsensibility]

1. Gah????!!!! What is Gah?

I see that she has now regressed to making up her own baby words, or something.....:puke: :eyes: Anyone here speak palinese? Oh well, maybe I don't want to know.

[applegrove]

2. They'll "My Fair Lady" her in the next 4 years. Though I don't think anyone

should be taught anything by Bill Chrystal. But they'll try and transform her. Of course they can then fill her head with neocon shit which would then make her Bush #2.

[bridgit]

3. It'll take more than Palin & Jindal to re-order the GOP; it'll take their existing for a generation

maybe two like in Clarke's: Childhood's End, out from under the poisonous claptrap of ethno-socioeconomic supremacists such as Pat Buchanan, Ed Rogers, Cheney, Rove, the Bush family, lapping up the remains of Atwater, shit! -- the list goes on & on. The GOP doesn't just have some s'plainin & retooling to do, they got some living on planet earth to do

[Jade Fox]

4. Once again Rich has scored....

with a great piece. His take on the GOP attempts a diversity are spot on. Well worth reading the whole article.

[Cha]

5. I just read this over in Editorials..I'm

glad it's here, too, in GDP..thanks Deep.

I'll reiterate what I wrote..

"Frank Rich has so much rich history to work with and he does it magnificently.

I hope more than a few readers learn from this moose article."

We now have a Reality Based America and the gop seems to want to hold on to the Lies that got them where they are today.

Thanks rove for having such a greedy snout.