The White House is lost, scandal is rife and a certain lady in Alaska has resigned her governorship. The Republican Party is, by any measure, a mess. Can it bounce back? Only if it radically alters its political leanings. Full Story »
Posted by Leo Romero
"Is the party over for the Republicans?" Other observers were asking the same question nine months ago. This being a British paper, though, I'm willing to take it on its face. Cornwell makes as good a case as any that, yes, it is over. The strength of this story is in the comparison to the Labor takeover in 1997, although I'd like to see some evidence that Tony Blair's popularity was "comparable" to Obama's.
Last autumn’s financial crisis and the current recession in the US, by contrast, were mainly brought about by a Republican free-market philosophy run wild. The Crash of 2008 was a failure not just of economic management but of an anti-interventionist, “grab what you can” ideology that had dominated American politics for decades.
Unsettling that few American pundits are willing to say it this bluntly.
To understand the state of the GOP, one need look no farther than the Birther movement and the party's de facto co-chairs, Sarah Palin, Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh, none of whom, it can now be said, hold public office.