More GOP Woes

07/17/2007

Paul Munnis


Fred Thompson is trying to keep the nation playing a waiting game -- that is to say -- waiting for him to announce his candidacy. To his chagrin, few care if he does or if he doesn’t.

From a Democrats viewpoint, the worst Democratic candidate could beat Fred Thompson. For Republicans with a crowded field of lackluster candidates – Fred Thompson is just another politician passing the hat seeking campaign money. For undecided voters that leaves a Democrat to choose from. Many Moderate Republicans will also be sizing up the Democratic candidates.

Thompson has little to offer to America. He has more connections in Hollywood than in Washington and of those connections in Washington many are tired and worn and worried about getting themselves re-elected. They have little time to rub elbows with Fred Thompson. Thompson has no vision to offer voters and the image of a cigar smoking old-fogey is not one that sells since Groucho Marks left the national scene.

So if he stays home nobody will mind and if he declares few will care.

People not caring are a big problem because today in order to run a campaign one must also run a money machine. If people don’t care they don’t give and if they don’t give you might as well stay home. That is one of many of Fred Thompson’s problems.

The present neo-con darling, Brownback, isn’t generating much excitement. Giuliani is an inexperienced politician with weak credentials for the national scene. McCain is an honorable man who has tried to please so many masters that people do not know what he stands for anymore. The rest are as noise and chaff in the wind.

Let’s face it, the GOP not only has problems with their Party but they have no candidate to run that can capture people’s imagination. Fred Thompson doesn’t fill the bill.

Making it worse is the legacy of their Party. They have a President who is the most unpopular in history. What is also bad is that they have a Vice-president who is just as bad. For the first time in 80 years the GOP is a Party without White House candidate continuity. Then there is the long line of people in jail or about to go there. GOP corruption has been astounding. Bush foreign policy is an embarrassment of failures upon failures. The U.S. economy is also in a teetering mode. The neo-cons have a tired, worn-out agenda that has proven bad. They can’t sell it any more. All that is left to the GOP is dirty tricks and attempts to seize the election in a spurious manner and that will not be tolerated again by the American people.

So people are focusing hard on four candidates right now: Hillary Clinton, Barrack Obama, John Edwards, and Bill Richardson. Candidates like Joe Biden and Dennis Kucinich are out on the trail telling it like it is.

At this point readers can fill in the blanks of who their preference is and why. In time a consensus will form and the election will be just a formality.

The big question now on everyones mind is what sort of a mess is Bush going to leave his successor?