There seems to be now a rift developing in the Republican ranks between the moderate and conservative wings of the party.
The following is comment I found on a friend's blog post concerning the future of the Republican party:
Hey what about Charlie Crist. He would get my vote. Long live the moderates!!
BTW. I firmly believe that if McCain had chosen Joe Lieberman rather then Palin he wins. Palin was clearly the choice of the RNC rather then McCain in my opinion. He lost because he chose to cave into the party and go right rather then stay center. I can name several Big Liberal who would have voted for a McCain Lieberman ticket rather then Obama.
While I respect this opinion because Republicans do need moderates in their ranks, I generally disagree with the conclusion that the party needs to essentially move to the left in order to be successful. The other school of thought, reflected by the above cartoon, is the camp that I find myself in moving forward.
The solution to this rift will be the ability of the party to rally behind a compelling leader who appeals to both moderates and conservatives. Someone competent who is yes, a conservative, but is not seen as someone who is necessarily on the far right.
I think we can all agree that a Democrat-light like John McCain, was clearly not the answer. After all, if you run a Democrat against a Democrat, the Democrat wins every time.
1 comment:
I wasn't in the room when McCain decided that Palin was his Veep choice but I would guess that he picked her because of her reform agenda and because of her gender.
Had he picked Joe Lieberman or Tom Ridge it wouldn't have helped. I love all these revisionists who claim a McCain/Lieberman ticket would have prevailed. It wouldn't have.
Palin kept McCain in the game, a game in which he played badly and should never have played in to begin with.
To echo your point, Jaz, squishy moderates might win Republican presidential nominations, but they sure as hell don't win presidential elections.
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