The Economist: GOP's Bad News

CONGRATULATIONS TO SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN FOR A GREAT VICTORY IN SOUTH CAROLINA. ON TO FLORIDA! "For Mike Huckabee this means it's over." (Gloria Borger, CNN) Good riddance, Mike.

Later today (Sunday), I'll have some more comments about the candidacy of Pastor Mike Huckabee -- hopefully, my last comments on that unpleasant individual. In the comments section on my previous column, I respond at length (also for the last time) to Larry, who feels I'm treating him and Mike unfairly. I've pointed out how Huckabee has made comments that are anti-Mormon and anti-Black. I've also discussed how he has some virulently anti-American people around him, including Rev. Laurence Kuhn, author of "God and Ceasar," which compares contemporary America (unfavorably) to Nazi Germany. Huckabee has absolutely no chance of ever winning a general election in a free society (ours), but he doesn't seem to have grasped that obvious fact.


I received today The Economist magazine's "The World in 2008" issue today, and it contains a good story on the emerging political situation. In an article titled "The Democrats' Year," its sub-head is: "The Betting is on Another Clinton Presidency."

Here's the heart of the piece: "It looks highly likely that this will be the Democrats' year. The Republican Party is in serious disarray -- unpopular with the electorate, plagued by scandals, tarnished by incompetence, and unsure which way it is heading. Five years ago, America was equally divided by party identification: 43% for each party. By 2007 the arithmetic had evolved to give the Democrats an advantage of 50% to 35%."

The article continues: "By October 2007 Democratic presidential candidates has raised about 70% more money than their Republican rivals. Ohio, Virginia, and Colorado are leaning Democratic--Ohio, which tipped the election for George Bush in 2004, decidedly so. Whoever wins the Democratic primary will most likely end up in the White House."

The Economist's view of reality is much like my own. I believe Barack Obama would be the Democrats' strongest candidate, rather than Hillary Clinton, but right now I have little doubt that one of them will be the next President. The magazine mentions that the next President will be the one to resolve three key issues: Iraq, Social Security, and immigration. They might also have included health care.

If The Economist's predictions are correct, Republicans (and conservatives) will have no say on those major issues. We can make all the calls we want to the big Democrat majorities in the House and Senate, and they will ignore us.

As I'll point out in future columns, we conservatives have brought much of this dismal situation on ourselves. We've turned off most of the American electorate, and we will live to regret doing so.

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Juan Carlos Lopez of "CNN Espanol" says of Hispanic voters (nearly 10% of registered voters in the U.S.): "They consider the whole debate on immigration not just to be directed against illegal immigrants but against Hispanics as a whole." Unfortunately, Republicans, with the exceptions of Giuliani and McCain, have done nothing to clarify this situation. That means states like NV, CO, AZ, and NM will be very, very hard for Republicans to win next November.