Self-fullfilling prophesy...

One of the most heated and hateful "debates" that I recall having with Ryan centered around my comparing the political commentary of Al Franken to Ann Coulter. Last night I had that opinion re-affirmed.

The Sunday night replay on Patriot 144 was the Mike Reagan show, and he had Ann Coulter as a guest. This woman optimizes hateful, elitist, bigoted opinion within the "conservative" right, and if there is ever a day when the 2008 general election becomes a crisis for the Republicans, she can take a large part of the blame.

The woman was so busy patting herself on the back and plugging her books and her syndicated column that very little actual commentary ever escaped her lips, but what was really telling was how little original thought ever showed in her discussion. I can't quite bring myself to give Michael Reagan credit for doing this, but it sure seemed to me like every time she said something that might have been "opinion" or "commentary"... Mike would say "Yeah, that's what So-and-so said yesterday..." or "That's right, just like Whats-his-face said in his article last week..."

One of the few times she actually got her own words our of her mouth, she referred to former President GHW Bush as a "boob in a tie". What more tangible example of Reagan-Republican could you hope for than Reagan's VP for 8 years? I'm no Republican, but even MY report card gives Bush Sr. high marks... his Cabinet was solid, he kicked Iraq's ass, he kicked Noriega's ass, he talked Gorby out of military intervention in Europe at Malta, he furthered the economic growth cycle, he signed NAFTA into law. In fact, the only real mistake you can point from his Administration (aside from vomiting on a dignitary's lap) was the whole "Read my lips" quote. The left used that all the way to the bank.

She never once referred to McCain as a viable GOP candidate for President... she just called him the "old liberal" in comparison to the "young liberal" (Obama) or the "female liberal" (Clinton). She says she still plans to write-in Romney's name on her ballot, because McCain hates conservatives. She kept crediting his success in the primary race to his "wearing the robes of conservatism" for the occasion, not because he believes in the cause.

Is this really how the GOP sees McCain? Does the RNC actually believe that the front-runner of the Party got where he is in the primary race simply because he "saw the light" and promised to change his liberal ways? Why wouldn't the GOP have voted for someone that ALWAYS supported GOP ideals, like Huckabee or Romney... or better yet, Paul? Why go with the "old guy" with the checkered past when they could have had someone more "conservative"? If there was anyone voting today that remembered the "Keating Five"... would McCain have the nomination?

As someone that has seen the path of their "Party" change to such a degree that I feel completely left behind, I wouldn't suggest that the GOP change its platform to suit the latest opinion polls... but perhaps the NEW "conservative revolution" needs to follow some of the winning ideas of the old one. Like abandoning the "Rockefeller Republican" attitude of "Follow ME" and getting back to some grass-roots campaigning to make the voting public understand the GOP position on key issues. Show us WHY the GOP is right, and the left is WRONG... don't just continue to play opposition politics because the Dems are.

Finally... all GOP supporters are drooling over the prospect of the Dems self-destructing in Nov because of the primary split... especially Hannity and Wilkow. But with Huckabee and Romney STILL getting a combined 27% of the GOP vote in Indiana, isn't that possibility still there for the GOP too? Doesn't the fact that more than a quarter of all GOP voters in Indiana chose to WRITE IN a candidate that hasn't been in the race for months tell you that the pundits that are STILL bitching about McCain's aisle-crossing past are setting a rather disturbing precedent for the November election?

Living here in NEPA, I can tell you first hand that I see no fewer than 11 "Ron Paul '08" signs on my way to work, and 6 "Huckabee for President" signs... but not ONE McCain sign. Not ONE. What happens if the Dems DO get their shit together and unite the party at the last minute, while the GOP is still fighting about McCain/Feingold or McCain/Kennedy? How many votes can the GOP afford to lose to a write-in campaign before key states start to fall to the Dems?