The GOP is Not DOA

By Alan Caruba

There has been much weeping and wailing about the Republican Party as dead and gone, never to return to its grandeur and, more importantly, its power in Congress and the White House.

I can recall the defeat of Barry Goldwater in 1964 (Yes, I am that old!) when a lot of Republicans likewise felt that the party was dead. What followed, of course, was the usual Democrat excesses that included vastly expanding the Vietnam War from a backwater operation involving a handful of military advisors to a full-scale conflict, plus the Great Society programs that sucked billions out of the economy and accomplished nothing of lasting value.

By 1968, having served out the assassinated John F. Kennedy’s term and been resoundingly re-elected, Lyndon Johnson told the nation he would not run for office again. By the time the war was finally concluded, America had over 50,000 dead. It would grind on through Richard Nixon’s first and second terms until its end in 1975.

Nixon was never a popular President, but he was a very effective one. He was also totally paranoid and, despite an enormous victory over George McGovern, he ruined his political career by signing off on the White House operation that led to the Watergate scandal. The result of that was Jimmy Carter.

Carter was loathed by just about everyone by the time he was defeated, having made more blunders than any President in the modern era. What followed, of course, were eight years glorious and politically conservative years of Ronald Reagan.

I cite this history because I believe that Barack Obama is Jimmy Carter Redux. It has taken him a mere 100 days or so in office to awaken the worst fears and general distrust of not just Republicans, but those Democrats who voted for his message of “change”, only to discover it translated to a proposed budget the size of which has never been seen in Washington, massive projected deficits, and a rise in taxation that is going to make everybody angry.

But, hey, that’s what Democrats do!

Fasten your seat belts. We have not even begun to see how weird things are going to get, given Obama’s strange notion that he can make millions and millions of Muslims love America when those, particularly in the Middle East, harbor unkind thoughts about the Great Satan. He is utterly deluded, but probably fondly recalling his days as an Indonesian citizen, his Muslim step-father, and his Muslim birth father who skipped out on his mother who ultimately left him in the care of her parents.

Obama is getting lots of help from “crazy eyes” Nancy Pelosi, the Abominable Speaker, who just got caught telling still more lies about when and what she knew about “enhanced interrogation” techniques. Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, the withered stick of liberalism, just got the administration to shut down Yukka Mountain, a multi-million dollar repository for spent nuclear fuel waste. It was and is the perfect place to put it, but now the stuff just sits around where any enterprising terrorist could get their hands on it.

As word begins to penetrate the voter’s thick skulls that “Cap-and-Trade” legislation to reduce greenhouse gas (CO2) emissions will drive energy bills through the ceiling and cripple the economy, the Democrats will have to back off of that crazed idea.

I could go on, but it’s worth being mindful that cases seeking proof that Obama was born in Mombassa, Kenya, are still wending their way through the courts and will, in the great fullness of time, be adjudicated. That’s not something Obama can stop though we know he’s had a legal team on it for months, if not years, at this point.

Will the GOP recover? Of course it will! We may even pick up the equivalent of “Reagan Democrats” in 2010 and 2012. Life in America is getting difficult and costly. Conservative values involving fiscal prudence, lower taxes, and a strong defense will re-emerge to take center stage. I don’t care what the pundits say, Americans do not like or want to be on the dole.

But, please, not Sarah Palin. She is not the new face of the Republican Party and never was until John McCain took ten minutes deciding to make her his vice president selection. She was not ready for prime time and still is not ready. Her family situation is not exactly perfect either. As for McCain, it’s rumored that he’s a Republican.

No, some real Republican will step up. Someone always does. Mitt Romney is looking better with every passing day. Huckabee will stay in TV land. There are others I could name, but my guess is that the GOP could run anyone of its top tier leadership and win.

Cheer up! There’s a mid-term election in October 2010!