Republican post-mortem begins after John McCain's defeat
David Frum, the former White House speech writer, who has emerged as a standard bearer for what might be deemed the 'David Cameron' wing of the Republicans, said that the party must change and start addressing issues that concern floating voters.
"We're not in good shape. Two big things won this election for Barack Obama: a big increase in turnout by ethnic minorities and a big shift in preference by college educated white people. That is where the Bush collapse really took place.
"That is where Sarah Palin was such a damaging force in the Republican Party. She symbolised a problem that in the eyes of many college educated white people, who Bush got in 2004 and the Republicans owned in the 1980s, the Republican party has become the party of culture war; it is the party of "Drill, baby, drill", so no environmental agenda.
Tim Shipman
If the GOP wants to do anything but shrivel up and die, people like Frum must not only be purged, they must be absolutely humiliated and laughed out of the party. Conservatism wins every time. Democrat-lite loses every time. Idiots like Frum point to the Bush victories in 2000 and 2004 as vindication. Nonsense. Both Bush victories were predicated on fear. Rove used fear of Al Gore and fear of John Kerry to bring conservatives to the polls. McCain tried it and lost. The better indicator of the result of Frum's strategies is the 2006 Congressional elections. And, of course, McCain's defeat itself.
Frum is so stupid, he can't even recognize evidence when it slaps him in the face. McCain was dragging badly in the polls until he introduced Palin to the campaign. That event single-handedly destroyed Obama's lead. Listening to people like Frum, McCain went back to his ridiculous Bush-like policy positions and pandered to Frum's favorite constituency. He blew his lead in the polls and then some. When faced with the choice between Democrat and Democrat-lite, the voters went for the real thing.
The GOP will live or die on their decision to either embrace the Flake faction or the Frum faction, and it will do so quickly.
"We're not in good shape. Two big things won this election for Barack Obama: a big increase in turnout by ethnic minorities and a big shift in preference by college educated white people. That is where the Bush collapse really took place.
"That is where Sarah Palin was such a damaging force in the Republican Party. She symbolised a problem that in the eyes of many college educated white people, who Bush got in 2004 and the Republicans owned in the 1980s, the Republican party has become the party of culture war; it is the party of "Drill, baby, drill", so no environmental agenda.
Tim Shipman
If the GOP wants to do anything but shrivel up and die, people like Frum must not only be purged, they must be absolutely humiliated and laughed out of the party. Conservatism wins every time. Democrat-lite loses every time. Idiots like Frum point to the Bush victories in 2000 and 2004 as vindication. Nonsense. Both Bush victories were predicated on fear. Rove used fear of Al Gore and fear of John Kerry to bring conservatives to the polls. McCain tried it and lost. The better indicator of the result of Frum's strategies is the 2006 Congressional elections. And, of course, McCain's defeat itself.
Frum is so stupid, he can't even recognize evidence when it slaps him in the face. McCain was dragging badly in the polls until he introduced Palin to the campaign. That event single-handedly destroyed Obama's lead. Listening to people like Frum, McCain went back to his ridiculous Bush-like policy positions and pandered to Frum's favorite constituency. He blew his lead in the polls and then some. When faced with the choice between Democrat and Democrat-lite, the voters went for the real thing.
The GOP will live or die on their decision to either embrace the Flake faction or the Frum faction, and it will do so quickly.
posted by Anonymous | 7:00 AM
3 Comments:
If you look at the few bright moments for the Republicans during this general election campaign, it was when they pushed the "Drill here, drill now, pay less" ideas during the August recess, John McCain's performance at the Saddleback Church Forum with Rick Warren, McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his VP running mate, Palin's speech at the GOP convention & Palin's VP debate performance. The common thread for all of these events is that it was a showcase for conservative ideas. The Republicans gained in the polls and even lead in the polls after these events. The conservative base was stoked and ready to vote. However, as we got closer to the general election, McCain was running commercials on TV how Obama agreed with him on global warming and other garbage like that. I'm sure David Frum believes that if John McCain would have chosen a moderate-liberal Republican like Tom Ridge, McCain would have been president-elect today. Yeah, I'm sure the conservatives, who didn't trust McCain anyway, would have been thrilled with that (NOT).
I promise you that the only reason McCain did as well as he did was his (short-lived) pandering to conservatives following the Palin announcement. Palin brought conservatives out. Had she not been on the ticket, The drubbing McCain took would have been beyond embarrassing.
According to the exit polls, the vast majority of Republicans who voted for McCain wished that Palin was the actual GOP nominee... Ha! You're right, McCain would have been down to Bob Dole/Jimmy Carter levels if it wasn't for Palin. Palin probably netted him 5% points.
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