National Republicans
Driving Off the Cliff
George Bush may have screwed up everything else in eight years, but even he knew better than to drive America’s automobile industry into bankruptcy at Christmas. Not so with Tennessee Senator Bob Corker and some of his Republican colleagues in Congress. All I have to say to them is: Keep driving, boys. Because – if…
Read MoreRepublican Death Wish
Republicans today remind me of Democrats after Reagan won in 1980: Determined to become a permanent minority party. If I could be a mole and dupe the GOP into a sure-fire strategy for self-immolation, I would keep them doing what some Republicans seem determined to do anyway: Drive GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy. Ignore the…
Read MoreTeam of Rivals
Presidents fight two wars. One to get elected. And one that starts the morning after the election. Only they may not know about the second war. Naturally, Barack Obama may think his authority (in the legal sense) as president gives him power to run his own government. But authority is a long way from control.…
Read MoreAfter the Fall
To most people – like Bill Clinton losing his party’s control of Congress in 1994 – one election is usually enough of a wake-up message. But Republicans are hard-headed – if madness is repeating the same mistake over and over with the same result we qualify. We shrugged off 2006, so history repeated itself in…
Read MoreThe Failure of the Southern Strategy?
When folks lose elections they go into paroxysms of contrition – usually confessing to the wrong sins. And when they win, there’s a parallel temptation – they attribute victory to virtues that had little to do with their success. Now, mi amigo Gary surely has a point when he says Republicans are in danger of…
Read MoreRout of the OWGs
Here’s one way to look at the 2008 election: The Old White Guys who were running things got fired. There’s George Bush, the MBA Presidency and all his OWGs running the war and the economy. There’s Mike Easley. Bev Perdue spent the final weeks of her campaign promising “change orders” on day one to put…
Read MoreTrapped by the Southern Strategy
Richard Nixon and Strom Thurmond ginned up the Southern Strategy in 1968. For 40 years, Dixie gave the Republicans an almost insurmountable edge in the Electoral College. The GOP won seven of the next 10 presidential elections. Now Republicans are trapped by their history. The only counties where Republicans gained in 2008 were in Appalachia…
Read MoreThe Great New Debate
Back in Jesse Helms’ campaign in 1990 when we made the ‘infamous White Hands’ ad one of the handful of people sitting in the studio was Alex Castellanos; lately Alex has been spending time on CNN and the other night he was asked how the Republican Party could save itself politically – after Barack Obama…
Read MoreCompetence, for a Change
You will recall that George W. Bush was going to give America the “MBA Presidency.” Apparently, that turned out to mean “Management by A–holes.” The Republicans were done in by the Bush team’s incompetent management of Iraq, Katrina and the economy. Ironically, the Obama campaign – and, so far, the transition – holds the competence…
Read MoreCompetence, for a Change
You will recall that George W. Bush was going to give America the “MBA Presidency.” Apparently, that turned out to mean “Management by A–holes.” The Republicans were done in by the Bush team’s incompetent management of Iraq, Katrina and the economy. Ironically, the Obama campaign – and, so far, the transition – holds the competence…
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