2008 will be a stellar year for the Democrats. As of now, not a single Republican candidate has shown that he has the ability to lead anything but a lukewarm campaign and the various scandals, problems and flip-flops surrounding them will sink their ship even before it gets down the slipway.
No one, but no one really takes McCain seriously anymore. Giuliani has sunk himself with his Kerik scandal, the latest being that celebrity book publisher Judith Regan was asked to lie in order to protect Giuliani. Who wants a President who can be impeached before he’s even taken office. Mitt Romney doesn’t really stand a chance and Ron Paul, though in a way I’d love to see him as a front runner won’t make the numbers. Mike Huckabee is coming up fast but his campaign will lose steam when the primaries start. Fred? Fred who? Oh, Fred Thompson. Yawn.
Of course it’s early days yet, but the writing’s on the wall. Bush has made such a dog's dinner of running the country that no Republican candidate necessarily wants to be associated with him whereas traditionally, the most successful candidates always got a boost from the incumbent President. At the same time, the Republican candidates can’t lean too far away from their aggressive chicken hawk stance that they’ve been holding onto for the past five years for fear of being accused of flip-flopping.
It’s going to be a landslide and with all probability, Hillary’s going to make it into the White House. This is great because it’ll almost be like having Bill as President again and it’ll drive the Republicans nuts. Of course the negative side is that Republicans will spend the next eight years trying to impeach her for some imagined offense.
As for the House, there are a number of retirements for various reasons. In all however, 3 Democrats are retiring:
Micaehl McNulty (NY)
Mark Udall (CO)
Tom Allen (ME)
McNulty has simply had enough after 10 (yes ten) terms, whilst Udall and Allen are running for the Senate.
On the Republican side however, we have 16 retirements:
James Saxton (NJ) - retiring aged 64
Heather Wilson (NM) – running for Senate
Jerry Weller (IL) – scandals
Jim Ramstad (MN)
Deborah Pryce (OH)
Rick Renzi (AZ) – scandals
Ralph Regula (OH) – 82 years old
Dennis Hastert (IL) – scandals
Ray LaHood (IL)
Steve Pearce (NM) – running for Senate
David Hobson (OH) – 71
Duncan Hunter (CA) – Running for President
Tom Tancredo (CO) – Running for President
Terry Everett (AL) – 70
Chip Pickering (MS)
Barbara Cubin (WY) – probably being asked to go after threatening to hit a person in a wheelchair
Whilst the democratic seats are pretty safe, the Republican ones are hotly contested. It gets even better (or worse depending on which party one is affiliated with). The DCCC, headed by Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland has $20 million in the bank to help out in tough races for the House, whereas the NRCC, run by Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, has only $2 million in the bank offset by $4 million worth of debts. Cole has already said that he can't help GOP candidates much and is trying to get rich businessmen to fund their own campaigns as candidates, a strategy that historically has had no success.
The only thing standing in the way of the Democrats sweeping away the presidency and making considerable gains in the house are the Democrats themselves. If they don’t rapidly grow a backbone and a decent sized pair of cojones, I can see people turning away from them again by the time elections are up.
United and strong they can make mincemeat out of the GOP which has been left in tatters after eight years of neocon frenzy. I can’t wait.
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1 comment:
I agree with your post completely.
The Republicans are living in some dream world where they really think they are popular with the people, but the nasty media makes it seem like everyone is against them. And those devious pollsters are in on it, too.
Everything that the Republican strategists are saying now sounds exactly like what they were saying before the 2006 elections. They realy thought that election would go their way, too.
I think it's unlikely the Democrats will get a veto-proof majority in the '08 elections, but who cares if a Republican president isn't in office making vetoes? Sure, we'll see a lot of slimy elction-day moves to keep people from voting and a lot of slander, too. But what the Republicans fail to see is that the Democrats' weakness comes from failing to stand up to Bush forcefully enough, not because Bush is so popular. Only an idiot would see that as making Republicans attractive.
Anyway, thanks for another eloquent post that covers all the bases and hits the nail squarely on the head. BTW, I loved the "dog's dinner" metaphor. I'll think of you every time I use it from now on.
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