I’m not sure what this is supposed to mean. McCain had sewn up the nomination before he chose Palin, and his popularity certainly didn’t get any better from that point on.
Palin is not an issue. Her fifteen minutes are just about up. If they’re going to select an evangelical in 2012 it’ll be someone else.
It will also include her ideas about nuclear energy.
The book will be called Critical Moose.
This is impossible. This is impossible. I have said this so many times, this is impossible. Without fundamentally changing the first-past-the-post presidential election system the U.S. uses (something I very much support), this cannot be done. Because the third party will always be completely cut out of the election cycle, the only thing they can hope to do is completely supplant another party, like the Republicans in 1860.
Valete,
Vox Imperatoris
It’s either impossible or very unlikely/difficult, it can’t be both. Make up your mind (and if a third party emerged in the past and won then that would make it possible, wouldn’t it?).
The country had to be on the brink of a total civil war to make it possible. We are not eager to repeat that.
I think House Minority Leader John Boehner is representative of the GOP. He thinks the old tactics of obstruct, obstruct, obstruct are going to work for him like they did in the Clinton years. He and others like him are in for a rude awakening.
That’s not a third party. That’s a new second party; there can’t be three at once under the current system—it is impossible.
Valete,
Vox Imperatoris
Bingo. If I were a Republican strategist, I’d just be sitting back and watching for something to go wrong that starts the backlash.
Spoiler alert: Obama’s popularity ratings will not stay this high for long now that he’s actually doing stuff instead of just talking about hope and change. People are going to find things to get pissed about and the Republicans then just have to position themselves as the source of change (a theme they’ll actually be able to use credibly now that they aren’t the ones in power!).
Only because one of the two existing parties completely self-destructed. If something’s going to replace the Republicans, it’ll be because the Republicans have become so fractured that they can’t function as a party anymore. The last time that happened, it was because the subject of slavery was so contentious that the Whigs preferred to dissolve their own party rather than try to reach an internal compromise. There simply aren’t any issues that are that contentious in our country, let alone within the Republican party. They need to retreat and regroup before they can take control of the country again, but they’re far from being so weak that a third party is a viable alternative.
In my lifetime, Republicans have gone from Reagan to Bush the Elder to Gingrich to W and Rove. I fear that you’re correct, that their next leader won’t emerge until the stars are right.
When they make a movie, she will be played by Denise Richards…convincingly.
As long as they get Denise into that tight white T-shirt that she wore in that Bond movie. And then show her wading through Florida wetlands hunting for moose. I’d be cool with that.
I believe the solution is Tax Cuts. Followed by Cutting Taxes, Lowering Taxes, and then probably a few more Tax Cuts.
Then, they’re going to start Reducing Taxes before getting back to work with some serious Tax Cutting.
-Joe
Alaska, wet t-shirt - cold nipples…
Because reducing the federal interest rate to zero has left them so much room to maneuver and influence behavior.
You need a stick for the carrot to work…and on occasion (like NOW) you need to have a bag of carrots available. The carrots the fed has - tax policy and monetary policy…
He got nominated, in no small part because everyone else was splitting the far right vote. If you remember there were a lot of questions about whether the true blue right would sit this one out before Palin got selected. After that, it was clear they were energized.
As for McCain’s popularity, I think you are looking at the country as a whole. McCain had to choose to move to the center or to the right - he chose the right and got clobbered. I think that is the same choice the party as a whole has to make.
I agree with you that Palin has no chance. Huckabee isn’t going on Fox just for the fame and glory.
All kidding aside, here’s the thing: cutting taxes is a great idea.
The thing is, you need to also Cut Spending. The Republicans, not so good at that.
No doubt. Except, the Pubbies have screwed things up so royally that the latest NY Times poll showed that most people don’t expect even Obama to make things better for up to two years. If the economy has turned around just in time for the next Congressional elections, that is going to be very tough for the GOP.
But that would actually make sense. There’s moose in Alaska. Remember, this is Hollywood. 
But that’s the beauty of the plan. You don’t need to Cut Spending. You just Cut Taxes twice as much and it all takes care of itself.
-Joe