Six ways the GOP can save itself - Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen - Politico.com: "Things are so ugly for the members of the GOP right now, it’s worth pondering their political mortality: Put bluntly, can this party be saved?
We talked to some of the smartest minds in Republican politics, and their prognosis is pretty grim. They think it will take pretty big changes — and possibly many, many years — to repair a Republican brand sullied by excessive spending, an unpopular war and an even more unpopular president."
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My own opinion is that Bush and the former Republican leadership in Congress did incalculable damage to the Republican party. I will not be surprised if the November election leaves the party reduced to 1970s size, pre-Reagan, stature in national and state government. I also am unimpressed with the analysis of conservatives who think that Obama is so far to the left that he can't be elected. This year, he can be. I don't know if he will or not--but he certainly can win. That's because (1) the country is ready to repudiate the Republicans, and because (2) most voters don't know what the left is all about, never having seen them in control of the country. Obama is disguising his real politics carefully and deliberately and successfully. Finally, (3) the press is running interference for him. For example, he said that we need to end the war in Iraq so we can send more Arabic translators to Afghanistan. Why? The people of Afghanistan don't speak Arabic. If McCain had said this (or called a reporter "Sweetie," as Obama did yesterday, or said that he had visited "57 states" as Obama did a while back) it would be a front page story. But when Obama says these things, they don't even get covered.
I often have students ask what the 1960s were like. Maybe people are about to find out.
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