Gary Pearce posted on May 25, 2011 09:32
If the Republican Party was a farmer and his crop was the current field of presidential candidates, he’d be losing the farm.
How can that be? How can a party coming off a landslide election sweep, a party consumed by its hatred of President Obama, a party convinced it has the right ideas for the future, not come up with a convincing candidate for President?
The answer lies in Richard Nixon’s typically cynical formula for running for President: “In the primaries, run to the right. In the general election, run to the middle.”
Today, Republicans have to run so far to the right in the primaries they can’t get back to the middle. And to get to the right, they have to walk the plank on Medicare.
Newt Gingrich’s famously uncontrollable mouth almost sank his candidacy from the get-go when he called Paul Ryan’s kill-Medicare plan what it is: “Right-wing social engineering.” Newt has been clarifying, apologizing and back-tracking ever since.
Now Democrats have apparently won a safe Republican congressional seat in New York – thanks to Medicare and the presence of a Tea Party Republican in the race.
So the GOP presidential race comes down to who wins the conservative primary to run against Mitt Romney. To many Republicans, RomneyCare looks suspiciously like ObamaCare. So you have to give the candidate of the right, whether it’s a nobody like Tim Pawlenty or a nut like Michael Bachman, a fighting chance to win the nomination.
Now, Democrats shouldn’t get cocky. Obama has enough problems – and the economy could still be bad enough – to lose the race. But, just as Sarah Palin shot down John McCain’s jet in 2008, the right wing could doom the GOP in 2012.