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"The Republican Party right now is like a midsize college team trying to play in the Superbowl. . . . It is pretty hard to say our losses were because of John McCain’s campaign. McCain performed way above plausibility compared to where the Republican president was in the polls. We have to look honestly at what went wrong."
Gingrich . . . said his main concern was the rise of what he called the "modern left," which just a few years ago was thought to be moribund in this country but now looks alive and kicking.Gingrich said the fundraising capacity of the left in the last election proved astonishing and far outstripped what Republicans were able to gather. "The modern left has gotten that large," Gingrich said.
I think Newt is conflating separate phenomena. The Left is currently more organized, more energized and more active than the Right, but this is the fruit of eight years of Bushism. The conservative base is still out there, but Democrats have fed on the profound public loathing of Bush -- the worst U.S. president since Nixon -- to leverage an anti-GOP trend.
Insofar as he rejects the idea of a Demsindragican party, sure.
ReplyDeleteOverall, taking the eyes off Federalism has done for the US what taking the eyes off Christ did for Peter.
The likelihood of recovery is proportional to how well this truth 'sinks' in.
Are we to believe that being a "moderate" who espoused so many liberal policies and enacted so much liberal legislation -- and was flirted with leaving the GOP and running as the Democrat VP in 2004 -- had no bearing on the defeat or with a poor conservative turnout?
ReplyDeleteCome on guys! How about we actually try Small Government, Individual Liberty, and a Strong America for a change?
Newt, it's all on your web site! Try reading it.
....as to "fund-raising," we have no friggin' idea where O-and-Savior's money came from.
ReplyDeleteBut Bahrain is a possibility...
I think he is right that McCain did better than might be expected.
ReplyDeleteI think more so, he does not want to openly blame the nominee. If that represents a return to the 11th commandment, that's okay. I think the unpopularity of President Bush could have been handled better by McCain, but he never liked the guy in the first place and we know how well McCain doesn't set his feelings aside.
I also think there are more things to be known and quietly acted upon than to be said. The Obama / Democrat machine was effective, but an enormous, ugly, inefficient thing of brute force that consumed even more money than their amazing and corrupt fund raising could provide. No need to discuss that publicly. The important thing is how our future presidential candidates prepare the ground, how do they campaign and fund raise for congressmen and governors and secretaries of state in 2010. Oh, and let's fix the primary process.
This is what we need to work on, not blaming McCain. Newt did the right thing, we got our ass kicked for a lot of reasons and the only appropriate public response is "they played good."