Republicans are downright giddy about the election today in Massachusetts. They believe this is a sure signal they will take the house and senate back in November. Combined with Virginia and New Jersey, they are sure these elections signal a return to Republican dominance.
Most of the time politicians show what the public already knows. They really aren’t too smart. Obama thought his election was a mandate to move to radical socialism. Surprise, Mr. President, you were elected because the country was tired of Bush, and McCain,a progressive Republican, was a weak competitor. You, Pelosi, and Reid have now trashed the party because you aren’t too smart.
The American public is just tired of incumbents. You won’t give us term limits, so the people are creating their own version of term limits. Republicans think the recent votes mean their seats are safe in November. Maybe and maybe not. When they count whether they can take back congress, they count their seats as safe. If I’m right, and this is a “no incumbent” mood in America today, no republican seat is safe. They will run the same old tired candidates, and it might be much like the Massachusetts situation where the democrats thought it was a slam dunk, only to find it was a race.
I recently went to a fund raiser for Ethan Hastert, son of Denny Hastert, running for Denny’s old seat in the House. My first impression was a feeling that Ethan Hastert, if not Denny’s son, was dramatically under qualified to be running for congress. The keynote speaker was Newt Gingrich. I like old Newt, always have. But, my second impression was that old Newt is still preaching the ideas of yesterday. If the Republican party wants to capitalize on the momentum going into the 2010 elections, they need new people and new ideas.
If they can’t muster up the courage to dump Michael Steele, they are taking a big risk. This guy lives with his foot in his mouth. He cannot bring the plan, strategy and execution that will be needed to take back the Congress in 2010. One strike against the party.
No real leader has emerged to push the effort for 2010. Strike two.
And, last my concern that the mood of the nation is not being recognized by anyone purporting to be speaking for the party. Strike three.
How smart do you have to be to see the “incumbents out” voter sentiment? Congress has a 25% approval rating. That’s not Democrats in Congress, that’s both Republicans and Democrats in Congress. The Tea Party movement is not a movement against Democrats, it’s a movement against Congress. The voters are very likely to throw every incumbent overboard in the 2010 elections. If that’s the case, the Republican party needs to get a large number of sitting congressmen and senators to retire this year and replace them with new fresh faces that run like Brown is running in Massachusetts. He does not have the Republican brand on any campaign materials.
Since politicians are not too smart ,and the Republican party has no real leadership, don’t look for a big takeover in the 2010 elections. They will misread the “tea leaves” and get smug and screw up just as the Democrats have in the past year.
