Karl Rove on Campaign ‘08
When Karl Rove talks about politics, wise people listen. Most importantly - he’s pointing out that making sweeping predictions at this point is foolhardy.
21 comments February 3rd, 2008
Posts with the tag 'Campaign Diary'
The Relaxed Republican
Politics is the art of the possible - sure, I’d like to clone Reagan and just keep running him every four years, but that ain’t possible. What is possible is that someone will run for the GOP nomination, and the chances of such a person being exactly what I want (ie, Reagan II) are very small. You take what you can get. And what we GOPers have got is a fine set of candidates - rapidly shrinking, now. Its between McCain and Romney, with McCain on the inside track for the Republican nomination. And I’m fine with that - in fact, I’m fine with politics in general these days.
This is because of three things:
1. The war is the most important short-term issue - and both McCain and Romney are certain to fight the war to victory, should either of them win the Presidency.
2. Life issues - abortion, euthansia, embryonic stem cells, etc - are the most important long-term issues - and both McCain and Romney are foursquare for the culture of life (yes, I know that it perhaps wasn’t always so - but it is now).
3. Either Romney or McCain can win in November - not easily, but each of them has the ability to unify the GOP base and reach out to indepdendents. And given that the Democrats are not getting united nearly as fast as the GOP is (see Michael Barone’s piece for more on this), we could be opening up into a world where the GOP is a fundraising love-fest while the Democrats are a money-sucking political knife fight. Who would have thunk it?
So, I’m relaxed - I’m having a ball watching the show, and given the intense interest being generated, I’m actually experiencing a strange world where normal people (ie, those who don’t care about politics) are diligently seeking out my counsel on matters political (yes, I’m being fair to the Democrats and continuously advising the political neophytes to research the candidates and parties and make up their own minds). The stakes in 2008 are, indeed, very high - but I’m refusing to be drawn into an emotional battle over this. Partially this is theological (guys, we believers win - we have an enormously unfair advantage), but partially it is a calm confidence in the wisdom of my fellow Americans - in spite of all the noise and propaganda, I don’t think that a majority of my fellow citizens really think that a lawyer (ie, Hillary or Obama) is the person to work out a way to make health care efficient and cost effective. In the end, I expect the Democrats to defeat themselves with their fool liberalism - and if they do win, then I’ll just wait for the landslide back to us once they make a hash of things.
Relax. Have fun. And if you are getting intense over this, have a beer and forget about it for a day or two.
30 comments January 31st, 2008
