Guest post by Scott Hopkins
Never a good sign for the the right-wingers when El Rushbo both loses his cool and flatly proclaims that Barack Obama is his president. But such was the scale of his party’s defeat this week, and the immediate strategy for many seems to be “if you can’t beat them, join them”:
That whole anti-American, friend-to-the-terrorists thing about President-elect Barack Obama? Never mind. Just a few weeks ago, at the height of the campaign, Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota told Chris Matthews of MSNBC that, when it came to Mr. Obama, “I’m very concerned that he may have anti-American views.”
But there she was on Thursday, after narrowly escaping defeat because of those comments, saying she was “extremely grateful that we have an African-American who has won this year.” Ms. Bachmann, a Republican, called Mr. Obama’s victory, which included her state, “a tremendous signal we sent.”
No one believes that Bachmann had a change of heart overnight, but she is certainly savvy enough to see the writing on the wall…and she’s not alone:
Doris Kearns Goodwin, the presidential historian, said she was hard-pressed to find a similar moment in history when the tone had changed so drastically, and so quickly, among so many people of such prominence. “I don’t think that’s happened very often,” Ms. Goodwin said. “The best answer I can give you is they don’t want to be on the wrong side of history, and they recognize how the country saw this election, and how people feel that they’re living in a time of great historic moment.”
Humiliating defeat, with no clear path back to relevance in an increasingly progressive nation, can do that to a party.
The dire situation was perhaps best summed-up by Ed Rollins on CNN, when the man behind Reagan’s 1984 landslide somberly proclaimed his party “crushed”, adding: “There is no organized Republican opposition anymore.”
Meanwhile, Ann Coulter blames it on McCain for being too liberal, a Red State front-pager proclaims “goodbye cruel world”, Tucker Carlson recommends that their next candidate speak fluent English and Michelle Malkin simply recommends some good old fashioned loin girding.
They are going to need it.
As for the future of their party, could Novak really be right on this one?
In serious conversations among Republicans since their election debacle Tuesday, what name is mentioned most often as the Moses, or Reagan, who could lead them out of the wilderness before 40 years? To the consternation of many Republicans, it is none other than Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House.
…Republicans seem chastened by the failure of seeking moderate, independent and even Democratic votes. They are ready to try going back to the “old-time religion.”
Newt 2012: Because 365 electoral votes just isn’t enough.
Are they sure Joe the Plumber isn’t available?
Comments are closed.