Saturday - November 07, 2009

Speaking of Obama, Heffer says he is beatable.  The question is, by whom?

There was a small photo in the hard copy of Ronald Reagan.  How I do miss that great man.
Anyway, this is an interesting take from an eminent Brit conservative.  There isn’t anything I care to add.  In fact, I can’t think of anything and it isn’t necessary anyway.
That’s your job.

I wonder, though, whether what has happened to Mickey (Mouse) is a metaphor for St Barack Obama, who perhaps needs an image makeover after an unsuccessful year of kowtowing to his friends in Congress. Finding a “dark side” to show to those who now call the shots in America – notably organised labour and other Leftist lobby groups – could well help his poll rating, as could an enhanced role for Minnie. Are Disney’s top men even now on their way to the White House for urgent talks?

it is quite clear that the rhetoric-filled incumbent is eminently beatable.

Barack Obama is beatable - but by whom?
The Republicans have a fundamental problem: they don’t have a leader to capitalise on Barack Obama’s weakness, says Simon Heffer.

By Simon Heffer

A year on from its meltdown in the Obama landslide, the Republican Party has cause to celebrate. As predicted, it won two state governorships this week – and that was predicted because of the disillusionment with the image machine that is President Obama and his chums. Those victories, in states Mr Obama won last year, Virginia and New Jersey, have caused not just many Republicans, but also their acolytes in the press, to proclaim they are on the road back, and that the spectre of George W Bush no longer hangs over them.
Perhaps they are right: but things don’t look entirely wonderful for them.
Like our Tories, the Republicans are finding it hard to avoid a civil war over ideology. A more significant electoral result, in this respect, came in a congressional by-election in New York state. There were effectively two Republicans on the ballot – a moderate, pro-abortion one called Dede Scozzafava, and one supported by most local Republicans, but running under the banner of the Conservative Party, Doug Hoffman. Last Sunday Miss Scozzafava withdrew from the race and said she would back the Democratic candidate. Her name was already on the ballot, she registered 5 per cent of the vote, and the Democrat won.
Those who have said that this shows the American people don’t want a Reagan-style Republican Party are, however, just plain wrong. Miss Scozzafava did not withdraw because she was popular: she withdrew because she was about to be thrashed out of sight. However, the battle over just how far to the Right the Republicans should be is one that is going to run, and cause problems, right up to the day in the summer of 2012 when their candidate is formally nominated to take on Mr Obama.

The Republicans also have a more fundamental problem: they don’t have a leader. George W Bush is in an outer darkness from which his forthcoming memoirs are unlikely to reclaim him. John McCain is still in the Senate and serving his country, but at 73, and with last year’s defeat on his record, the game is up. And Sarah Palin, who arrived with such a bang, has left with a whimper, weighed down by lawsuits, the towel thrown in in Alaska, and her baroque extended family having become one of America’s favourite soap operas.

In just under a year’s time, Mr Obama and his party will face what threaten to be gruelling mid-term elections. Sensible Republicans argue that anything could happen in that time and that the chances of winning back either the Senate or the House are slim. Despite the anti-Obama feeling in the country, and the unlikelihood of dramatic economic recovery over the next 12 months, they are probably right. However, the Republicans must demonstrate some momentum in those elections or they will never get out of the starting blocks in 2012: and it is quite clear that the rhetoric-filled incumbent is eminently beatable.

With that election almost three years away, nobody wants to be a Republican front-runner and invite early destruction (Sarah Palin, qv). However, media here have already identified two – Tim Pawlenty, the Governor of Minnesota, who strongly supported Mr Hoffman over Miss Scozzafava, and Mitt Romney, the multi-millionaire Mormon who ran for the nomination last year.

Governor Pawlenty sounds like he could be the man to beat – “We cannot send more politicians to Washington who wear the Republican jersey on the campaign trail but then vote like Democrats in Congress,” he said of his desire to back Mr Hoffman. So the fight will be entertaining, and possibly nasty – and that’s before they even take it to Mr Obama.

SOURCE

Posted by peiper     on 11/07/2009 at 07:30 AM   
Filed Under: • Editorials • Politics • UK •  
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