Arlen Specter to Become a Democrat

[Miroslav]

Re: Arlen Specter to Become a Democrat

I kinda fear the political sling shot effect looking into the future- I dont see Obama's policies helping the economy in the long term, with this massive spending he's creatiing his own economic bubble which will get us out of the hole we are in right now, but back into the ditch not long after. You cant spend trillions upon trillions we really dont have without bankrupting the country- then what hapens, the backlash which puts a ultra right wing guy in the white house. Then we just get screwed from the other direction. At least McCain was more of a moderate, and unfortunately too old to run in 2012.

You may just be on to something here. I do agree that overspending it is likely to end up being Obama's Achille's Heel...

[toasty]

Re: Arlen Specter to Become a Democrat

There is a not insignificant part of the Republican party that honestly thinks that they lost in 2008 because they nominated a guy that was too moderate, that was not far enough to the right. Looking at poll numbers and whatnot, I'm not sure how one could reach that conclusion -- perhaps they think that following the Rove model of ignoring the middle and energizing the far right was still viable -- but those people are out there. Maybe it's just that they are the loudest, but it seems like more than a few dittoheads.

If the GOP continues on this same path, where you effectively have a civil war within the party between the moderates and the right wingers and there is no cohesive message coming out of the party, they could be in for long ride in the minority. Same fate if that civil war is "won" by the side anchored by Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, et al., because that cannot be a winning long-term solution. As a matter of fact, if that were to happen, I suspect you might see a third party come in and fill the void for moderate, more secular Republicans. We've gone through a number of political parties in our nation's history, and it isn't unreasonable to expect that at some point, a new party will supplant one of the current parties. Hell, the Dems were barreling towards extinction after 2004 but got their shit together and now enjoy a commanding majority -- the GOP is a far cry from dead and gone, but they cannot continue on this same trajectory...

Not QFT here, just to provide some context for my next comment. Was just looking at the 2010 Senate Projections on 538.com, and it does not bode well for the republicans to reverse course as of right now. They are ranked in order of likelihood of changing parties -- here's the list, with the party currently controlling the seat after each state:

New Hampshire (R)
Missouri (R)
Connecticut (D)
Kentucky (R)
Ohio (R)
Florida (R)
North Carolina (R)
Delaware (D)
Colorado (D)
Illinois (D)

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/05/senate-rankings-may-2009-edition.html

4 of the top 5 and 6 of the top 7 are considered most likely to go blue (to the extent there are changes in control at all). That is a jarring possibility, when you think about what has already happened in the past two elections. We're talking here about a filibuster-proof majority even without guys like Ben Nelson, Joe Lieberman and Arlen Specter. The Republicans would be functionally irrelevant.

The party needs to do something to stop the bleeding and start attracting people back into the fold... and yet you still have the Rush Limbaughs of the world doing the same shit that got the GOP into this mess to begin with. Really, really astonishing...

[floridaorange]

Re: Arlen Specter to Become a Democrat

They need to figure out the lingering iraqi war profiteering too, that sh*t ain't right!

The whole mess has left such a dark cloud over Bush regime and the other f*cked up R's that followed his lead...this is not the conscienceousness conservatives are supposed to be known for:

War zone contracting termed huge 'failure'

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_623479.html