When Republicans get nervous

September 26, 2005

It doesn’t happen often, so when key Republican players express deep concerns about the party’s electoral fate, it’s worth paying attention to.

For example, the Boston Globe had a piece today on Republicans targeting Michigan as a state where they hope to make some headway next year, thanks in part to high unemployment and luke-warm approval ratings for Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D). But aside from Michigan, these guys don’t sound very confident.

”Michigan is one of the opportunities — and there’s not a lot of them when overall the numbers don’t look good,” said Matthew Dowd, Bush’s pollster in 2004. […]

”Nationally, there are storm clouds on the horizon as the 2006 elections approach, and anyone who tells you otherwise is either politically deaf and dumb or doesn’t know what they’re talking about,” said Alexander Gage, a Republican pollster who developed Bush’s strategy in 2004 of ”micro-targeting” to identify Republican-leaning voters.

Obviously, there is all kinds of time between now and November 2006, but consider this your morale boost for the day — some of the top GOP strategists in the country are clearly getting nervous.

Sounds good to me. When do we get to hear more from the Dem side of the equation? You know, things like “Ohio is one of the opportunities” and “several new candidates look very strong in head to head polling against GOP incumbents”.

  • What will be interesting will be when (if) they really turn on Bush to distance themselves from him and his remarkable record of failures (before and during his presidency), leavened by a few successes that in a way are failures for us all (his being appointed president by the Supreme Court, his being elected in 2004). I can’t wait.

  • It’s when the Republicans get nervous that they’re most dangerous — impeachment trials, Willie Horton, next time it will be doctored pictures of Hillary Clinton in bed with Osama bin Laden — and we can discuss the intracacies of Photoshopping on blogs for weeks while her numbers sink. (This works for any Democratic candidate for anything.)

  • What Martin said. When I think of Republicans getting nervous, I think of a well-armed man with an itchy trigger finger.

  • Max Sawicky publishes testimony from Conservative Republican and Reagan tax honcho Bruce Bartlett before the Senate Democratic Policy Committee. The kicker:

    … I think there is a political market for the party and the candidate who speaks honestly about the nature of the fiscal crisis that is looming. The payoff may not be immediate and the public trust has to be earned by more than just rhetoric. But if, as I believe, some event will eventually change the political landscape, voters will remember who spoke the truth and who mouthed the platitudes.

    It’s dirty work, but someone has to do it. Since my party won’t do it, yours is going to have to. If it’s done right, your party will gain at the expense of mine and you will deserve the benefits and my party will deserve the electorate’s disdain.

    http://maxspeak.org/mt/archives/001629.html#more

  • Storm clouds? It will be more like a tsunami! The Republicans are
    right to be nervous. They are looking at being swept away and far out
    to sea to drown if the momentum against them keeps building.
    Right now the top leaders in the House, Senate, and the White House
    are all looking very shabby and lamentable. The noose is starting to
    tighten around their necks and they are begining to feel it tug more and
    more with each passing day. It couldn’t be happening to a more
    deserving bunch of desperados.

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