Leave a Comment

Past Tense
N/A — How bad is it for John McCain?  “Even Republicans [are] speaking of him in the past tense.” In the battleground states “the numbers are startling.” And not startling good. Good times. The Republican party’s over.

Your Abbreviated Pundit Round-up
Daily Kos — ... vice president-elect or the best-known young figure in a Republican party that will be angry, disenchanted with its existing leadership and probably ready to rebuild around a conservative core that loves her. Either way, she is and figures to remain the biggest fund-raiser in her party, which is a sure way to win friends and allies. In short, the excellent adventure of Sarah Palin will continue. When does reality get in the way of the GOP base? EJ Dionne: Conservatives are at each other's throats, and here's what's ...

End of Days, the Prequel
The Mahablog — ... In the Washington Post, E.J. Dionne makes the interesting observation that the GOP seems to be splitting into McCain and Palin camps. The stats say Palin is a drag on the ticket, Dionne says, ...

Has McCain Hastened The Demise Of The “Reagan Coalition?”
Firedoglake — ... Reagan at the 1976 GOP Convention via danagraves. E.J. Dionne has some interesting analysis of conservative infighting and division:  For years, many of the elite conservatives were happy to harvest the votes ...

McClellan latest Republican to back Obama
Political Animal — ... told CNN Thursday he's voting for Barack Obama. "From the very beginning I have said I am going to support the candidate that has the best chance for changing the way Washington works and getting things done and I will be voting for Barack Obama and clapping," McClellan told new CNN Host D.L. Hughley. McClellan is the third high-profile Bush insider to throw his support to Obama, following Powell and Matt Dowd. It's not just the more visible public figure, either. E.J. Dionne, Jr., noted in his column today, "In The Post tracking poll released yesterday, Barack Obama drew 22 ...

What the Right Has Wrought
Opinionator — The op-ed page of The Washington Post publishes two takes on the discontent among conservative intellectuals — does Scott McClellan count? — over John McCain and Sarah Palin. Charles Krauthammer shrugs his shoulders. “ Contrarian that I am, I’m voting for John McCain ,” he writes. “I’m not talking about bucking the polls or the media consensus that it’s over before it’s over. I’m talking about bucking the rush of wet-fingered conservatives leaping to Barack Obama before they’re left out in the cold without a single state dinner for the next four years.” E.J. Dionne, however, thinks the phenomenon is more significant than mere bandwagon-jumping. “These conservatives deserve ...

"Civil War on the Right"
The Corner on National Review Online — Friday, October 24, 2008 [image] "Civil War on the Right" [ Rich Lowry ] E.J. Dionne writes an anti-intellectualism-comes-home-to-roost column today. A couple of things: 1) Liberals always say conservatives have been making a populist appeal for decades, and at the same time that the Right used to be intelligent in a way it isn't anymore. Well then, populism must be compatible with intelligent conservatism, if they lived together for 30 years. 2) Gov. Palin is supposedly the apotheosis of populist conservatism and shows how low we've been brought by our anti-intellectualism. But this is reading way too much into an accident of circumstance. It's not as if the entire history of ...

No More Mister Nice Blog — IF LIMBAUGH DIDN'T EXIST, THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN SOMEONE ELSE JUST LIKE HIM In resaction to Rush Limbaugh's impassioned, almost bro-mantic defense of Bobby Jindal (to fellow-right-wingers: "if you think ... Jindal was horrible, ... I don't ever want to hear from you ever again"), "crunchy conservative" Rod Dreher quotes a recent essay in which John Derbyshire argues that Limbaugh and other wingnut talkers are harmful to the glorious right-wing Cause. I'm shocked, really -- I would have assumed that a right-wing denunciation of talk radio was as likely as a loan shark's skepticism about thumb-breaking -- but, well, there it is. Derbyshire ...