Wright Flap Can’t Fix What’s Wrong With the GOP
By Adam Graham (03/18/08)
In addition to outrage, some of my fellow Republicans seem almost giddy over the revelations about Barack Obama’s former pastor and spiritual mentor’s history of anti-American and anti-White statements.
If you think this greatly increases GOP chances of victory in the Fall, I’d suggest you think again.
Impeccable Timing
If there is a right time for it to come out that a man whose church you’ve attended for twenty years is a flaming anti-American racist, this was it. It came out just after Obama won the Mississippi Primary, but with nearly six weeks to go until the Pennsylvania Primary. Will we be talking about this story in five weeks? What about three? Barring new statements being found, it’s hard to see how the story stays alive.
Had this story come out earlier, it would have hindered Obama during his 11 contest win streak, or had it come out the week before Super Tuesday, it would have been the death knell of his campaign. Had it broken in October, it could have caused the campaign to melt down. Now, the story is being dealt with when Obama has plenty of time to recover.
If the story does have legs, and Obama can’t put the fire out, this probably breathes new life into the Hillary Clinton campaign. With a strong win in Pennsylvania and more moderate God and Country Democrats being given reason to doubt Obama, it opens doors for Hillary through the rest of the schedule. Obama has done exceptionally well in Red States where state party regulars have uneasy memories of the devastation wrought by the Clintons. However, a President like Barack Obama, who could easily be painted as an anti-patriot, would be even worse than the Clintons in many conservative-leaning states. So, it’s conceivable Hillary could gain a strong enough share of the popular vote combined with cutting into the delegate lead, that she could take the nomination at convention on super delegates. Recent polls have shown her overtaking Obama for the national party lead, so some Super Delegates can excuse themselves by simply saying that whatever voters said at the election polls, the opinion polls indicate they changed their minds.
The bad news is that at this exact moment time, Hillary Clinton has become the far more dangerous opponent at this point in time, anyway. Ann Coulter’s “support” for Hillary Clinton is at least partially vindicated by Mrs. Clinton’s no nonsense campaign against Barack Obama while many GOP leaders politely demurred. If she becomes a general election candidate, Barack Obama will have been her perfect foil: A formidable opponent defeated, odds overcome: The Comeback Kid II.
The problems plaguing the GOP are serious and substantial: lack of conservative enthusiasm over a McCain ticket, a sagging economy, and general public dissatisfaction with government, which will be bad for incumbents everywhere, including the incumbent party in the White House. There’s a fine line between optimism and wishful thinking, and building a campaign on the politics of wishful thinking is pure political folly.
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