Is the GOP intentionally committing political suicide or does it really not realize what is happening? GOP, you have to run a real candidate. Right now the field is narrowed down to a few someones many people feel are either morally reprehensible, OR someone no one likes or relates to OR someone so religiously conservative that his positions are repelling most of the people in the United States.
The attack on women’s reproductive rights is going to bury the GOP. The Virginia legislature has made the Old Dominion the laughing stock of the nation. Every night we see another Marshallism ridiculed by Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, or Rachel Maddow. Ed Schultz has probably gotten in the act also. While people are mocking the Virginia legislature and acting like the rest of us are all a bunch of bo-hicks, the nation now turns to Rick Satorum.
Santorum has left a paper trail of remarks that belong in another era long enough to bury the GOP and alienate most women. Remarks about contraception being harmful have turned off all but the most conservative of the pro-life community. Comments about convenience and aspirin from GOP backers are just feeding the fires of women’s ire. Not just the feminists are furious. Plain old normal women who don’t usually have political interests are pretty stirred up.
From the Washington Post Plum Line:
Today a New York Times/CBS poll asks: “Do you support or oppose a recent federal requirement that private health insurance plans cover the full cost of birth control for their female patients?”
The results:
This is Obama’s new accommodation policy, which the Blunt amendment would roll back completely and go considerably further in the process.
Sixty six percent support this federal requirement; only 26 percent oppose it.
CBS’s polling team sends over a partisan breakdown of the answers, and it’s even more striking:
* Even Republicans support this policy, 50-44.
* Independents support it by 64-26.
* Moderates support it by 68-22.
* Women support it by 72-20.
* Catholics support it by 67-25.
* And even Catholics who attend church every week or almost every week support it by 48-43.
These numbers don’t look good for the GOP. Saner heads need to take control and do some major damage control. If they don’t, there will be a rout in the fall. If that is what it takes to get rid of this clown parade, then so be it. What century does some of the GOP live in?
I know Republicans I like and who are NOT like the people we are calling out. They are normal people. We might not always agree politically but there are no differences that can’t be discussed. I feel badly for them. I am sure they are just as frustrated as we are. I was laughing this fall. There were lots of sideshows. It is no longer funny. The social issues shouldn’t be dominating the course of a country. Whatever happened to jobs, technology, infastructure and growth, energy, transportation, security, environment and the things that affect our livelihoods and quality of life? They seem to have drifted off like a cork in the ocean and replaced by religion and what goes on in people’s bedrooms and some huge, uncontrollable urge of some to control others.
Even Bill O’Reilly just said that Santorum and Freiss handed the ‘liberal left’ a machine gun.
Politicians need to stay away such topics, according to O’Reilly.
I think the Republicans haven’t a coherent plan to solve all the nation’s economic problems (which they helped create) so they look for an issue that will mobilize the most active part of the party and get them to the polls. That active base now is composed of wing-nuts on the right. It would be the equivalent of the Democrats thinking the Weathermen could have won a Presidential election for them in the Sixties. The fringe may get the populace to think further about issues but it won’t win elections or reflect mainstream thought. Santorum reflects their, the far-right wingers’, ideal of an uncompromising ideologue. He’ll lose any general election.
I think once Romney realizes that the next primaries aren’t going to be the cakewalk that he thought they would be, you’ll see an all-out assault on Santorum and that paper trail will harden moderates against him. He’s already weird to watch – the transformation from smile to smirk and back to smile is nutty. He can hardly keep his seething rage hidden. It’s like watching Gingrich trying to be humble. He, Santorum, also thinks that that vest will win him empathy. It’s like saying “I know you dumb****s will fall for this cozy, comforting image”.
It’s ok to say dumb-asses here. I do. Somehow it’s the only word that fits sometimes.
Very well put, regarding the Weathermen. Yup, they were the fringe. Remember when Dan Rather got knocked to the ground? I don’t know why I just thought of that.