For Republicans, it can't get any worse (Cornwall / The Independent)

Rupert Cornwell: For Republicans, it can't get any worse
A resurgent Dick Cheney is the last thing his party needs
Friday, 15 May 2009

... Not for him the admission of error. If the previous administration made a mistake, it was in being not too conservative, but not conservative enough. Astonishingly, Cheney held up the bombastic Rush Limbaugh, the right-wing talk radio host, as a better role model for Republicans than Colin Powell. Admittedly, Cheney and Powell had big policy differences, and Powell came out in support of Obama in the 2008 election. But to prefer a merchant of talk show prejudice to one of the country's acknowledged heroes, who might actually expand the Republicans' withering base, is surely taking things too far ...

Cheney-as-leader-of-the-opposition will not last. Since the election, the role has already changed hands several times. John McCain vanished from the scene pretty much immediately after his defeat. The mantle first passed to Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader who is the highest ranking Republican on Capitol Hill. But McConnell is a legislative tactician, not a frontline leader. Eyes then briefly turned to Bobby Jindal, the young and personable governor of Louisiana, an Indian-American who had been billed as the Republican Obama. Unfortunately, when his big moment came and he was picked to deliver the Republican response to Obama's first address to Congress, he bombed ...

In a way, none of this greatly matters. Obama is highly popular. The country basically agrees with what he's trying to do. It recognises the depth of America's problems, and is ready to be patient. Under these circumstances, a half-way decent performance should guarantee him re-election in 2012. There are tides in politics, and if the tide is running against you, there's not a great deal you can do about it. Thus it is with the Republicans right now, when Americans will accept bigger government – even bigger taxes – if that's what is required to put the country to rights. The Republicans are out of the game, with no realistic hope of recapturing the White House until 2016 at the earliest.

But even that goal may be wishful thinking. The Republicans are in a virtually identical position to the discredited and divided Conservatives in 1997 – perhaps an even worse one, given that John Major's government bequeathed a recovering economy, and indeed also a proven economic philosophy, to its Labour successor. Immediately after their defeat the Tories then, like the Republicans now, lurched even further to the right ... http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/rupert-cornwell/rupert-cornwell-for-republicans-it-cant-get-any-worse-1685166.html

In fact, I'm counting on it getting worse for the GOP. What goes around, comes around.

:D :bounce: :party: :dem: