Two articles you may have missed beg the same rhetorical question - are Republicans ready to lead should the 2010 elections go their way?
The first, by Ramesh Ponnuru, provides some needed cold water to Republicans' perceived overconfidence on their 2010 prospects. Ponnuru points to five factors that could work against Republicans come November. He ends:
"The better Republicans' prospects become, the more Americans are going to ask whether the party is ready to lead. Chairman Steele recently said that he wasn't sure it was. It was another gaffe; it was also true."
The second article is from Peggy Noonan, and posits that passage of the health care reform bill will amount to a "catastrophic victory" for Democrats. Noonan feels the Obama Administration misread and overestimated its mandate, choosing to stake its and Democrats' collective fortunes on a massive, expensive, and confusing health care bill when the public sentiment was focused more on jobs, the economy and the deficit.
While Noonan doesn't question probable Republican electoral gains, she does express concern that the party lacks a cohesive message and is ill-equipped to lead:
"They do not see that 2010 could be a catastrophic for them. If they seize power without a clear purpose, if they are not serious, if they do the lazy and cynical thing by just sitting back and letting the Democrats lose...Republicans themselves will be left unable to lead when their time comes."
The elections are only ten months away, still plenty of time for Democrats to reverse their negatives. Is it enough time for Republicans to reverse theirs?
Almost. They need a clear message, not just anti-Obama, that'll get you only so far. They need a clear, conservative, understandable message. But the problem is there's a war within the Republican Party between the Reagan wing and the what used to be called the Rockefeller wing. They're unified in their opposition to Obama, and that's about it.
ReplyDeleteSo Obama remains lucky in his enemies.
Not being George Bush was enough for the Democrats to realize electoral success in 2006 and 2008. While it won't be enough not to be a Democrat in 2012, it WILL be enough this year (unless jobs come back). While not a Steele defender, I give him credit for having the courage to ask the question.
ReplyDeleteHow much of this 'war within the party' is real (some degree of that is healthy) and how much is blown up by the media?