The GOP’s Dilemma
by digby
The GOP’s dilemma
Mike Allen is reporting that the Republican Villagers are depressed. It seems they have a problem: no decent candidates. When Mitch Daniels has become your dream candidate you know you’ve got trouble. But one out come is far worse than others:
There is one other scenario, and it terrifies Washington Republicans. That is the possibility that some very conservative, insurgent candidate will become the Romney alternative: former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum or former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, if she defies conventional wisdom and winds up going for it.
“Republicans could have the situation that Democrats did in 1972, when the base of the party was so far outside the mainstream,” said one top Republican. Back then, George McGovern was the Democratic nominee and lost 49 states to President Richard Nixon.
Could be. I know I’m looking forward to the GOP Tea Party convention anyway.
But here’s their problem. And it’s not the nuts in the field, it’s the extreme policy positions to which they’ve apparently wedded themselves:
Gingrich’s campaign, however, seemed in danger this week after he referred to Ryan’s Medicare proposal as “radical change,” drawing sharp criticism from a number of top Republicans. He apologized in a telephone call to Ryan on Tuesday afternoon.
Gingrich is certainly a nut and a terribly divisive figure. But he was positioning himself in the race very intentionally as the guy who didn’t want to destroy Medicare. That should be a legitimate position in the Republican party and one that you’d think would have quite a few adherents in the political class considering the fact that it’s a third rail and polling terribly. But evidently there’s not going to be daylight allowed between the candidates and the Randroids and the Tea Party, so I guess they’re worries about this “insurgency” are purely cosmetic. Sarah and Michelle and Newtie’s ideas aren’t the problem, it’s just that they don’t sound very smooth delivering them. If that’s the case then their problems are bigger than they think.
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