Oh man, with Huckster and Obama winning Iowa, naturally the Village Of Serious Beltway People is on the edge of a full blown meltdown. They are completely going out of their minds at this point as we make the rounds this morning.
As usual, WaPo is trying to play both sides of the street. But a closer look shows the Village in action.
Mike Huckabee’s decisive victory over Mitt Romney in the Iowa caucuses last night marks a revolution in Republican politics. An outspent outsider triumphed over a former governor who played an inside game. Huckabee’s victory is also the revenge of evangelical Christians who had been taken for granted by the GOP establishment and decided to vote for one of their own, a Baptist minister turned politician.
Change, particularly generational change, was also at the heart of Barack Obama’s victory over Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards. Young voters and independents flocked to the Illinois senator. Media entrance polls showed that Obama defeated Clinton by better than 5 to 1 among voters under age 30, and such voters made up almost as large a share of the caucus electorate as voters over 65, a strongly pro-Clinton group. Among independents, Obama beat Clinton by better than 2 to 1.
Damn kids and outsiders! What the hell are you doing to our Village? And what’s the verdict?
In the Republican field at this point, only McCain seems to be reaching beyond the GOP heartland, and this trajectory worries Republican professionals who wonder where this nomination battle will leave their party when it’s over. “There is an interesting contrast between these primary campaigns that ought to be troubling to Republicans,” David Winston, a pollster who works closely with congressional Republicans, said even before the results were in. “The top Democrats are thinking about how to expand their electorate to bring in independents, whereas the leading Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, is trying to depress turnout by pushing people away from his opponents.” Indeed, Romney may no longer be a leading candidate after last night’s loss.
Only McCain can save the GOP, in other words. Meanwhile…it looks like the Village is at least semi-happy with Obama since he seems to be, well, not Edwards.
People who complain that Barack Obama lacks experience must be unaware of his legislative achievements. One reason these accomplishments are unfamiliar is that the media have not devoted enough attention to Obama’s bills and the effort required to pass them, ignoring impressive, hard evidence of his character and ability.
Of course…only semi-happy. After all, the Village still has a job to do.
As the political blitzkrieg of 2008 begins in earnest, it is the Democrats who, on a number of key issues, are living in a state of denial.
In Iraq, coalition casualties are down significantly, along with Iraqi civilian casualties, roadside bombings and suicide attacks. Large sections of Baghdad have been pacified, and the military rolls toward Mosul. Al-Qaeda in Iraq is in reeling retreat. And, most impressive, we have seen the first example of a large-scale Sunni Arab uprising against Islamic extremism. By one estimate, 30,000 former insurgents and tribal leaders are now fighting the enemy in Iraq, adding their surge to our own.
This progress is reversible, especially while Moqtada al-Sadr’s militias maintain the capability to mount their own mini-Tet Offensive. But Gen. David Petraeus’s counterinsurgency strategy has succeeded with disorienting speed. Its combination of vision and competence will fill chapters in military textbooks.
In spite of these gains, Democratic presidential candidates still insist on reckless timetables for withdrawal — the surest way to rescue defeat from the jaws of victory. And Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid — who declared that the surge had “failed” even before it was fully implemented — now contends that “the surge hasn’t accomplished its goals.”
Hippies!–Erm, sorry. Where was I. Oh yes, the Village Adjunct Ladies Auxiliary is also hoppin mad.
Dear Iowa Republicans,
I’ll put this in language even your tiny little Iowa brains can understand: What the f*** is wrong with you people?
The news coming out of Des Moines (literally, French for “tell me about the rabbits, George”) tonight is distressing in the extreme. 32 years ago, your Democratic brethren took one look at Jimmy Carter — the worst 20th Century President bar Nixon, and the worst ex-President ever — and declared, “That’s our man!”
Three decades later, and along comes Mike Huckabee. Same moral pretentiousness, same gullibility on foreign affairs, only-slightly-less toothy idiot’s grin. Then you so-called Republicans took a look at Carter’s clone and said, “That’s our man, too!”
The Cowardly Lion is also gone off the deep end. He’s of course sore that Romney lost, and wondering…well…why the hell Romney lost.
Let me translate the NewYorkTimes-speak: “Thanks, you bozos in the sticks. We played you like a fiddle. Now it is time to bleed your guy to get our guy.”
Brooks’ guy is McCain, but the MSM’s guy is whoever the Dem is.
So what to do? The markets may tell us a bit over the next couple of days or weeks, but the investor class has to be wondering about equities this time next year, even if Pakistan’s nukes stay stable, Iran doesn’t unveil its own NIE-confounding device, and further North Korean shipments to Syria are interdicted. President Obama and strengthened majorities in both Houses won’t wait long to bring the pain that precedes the “politics of hope,” however, and you can’t expect markets to wait to get clobbered.
The debates of Saturday and Sunday may be interesting as well. Expect a wounded Romney to go on the offensive against John McCain’s long record of sticking it to the GOP. Rudy may be tempted to do so as well, or may wait for the Florida long ball. Huck may get an encore in South Carolina, but he’s already over for the reasons Brooks noted.
My Townhall column today is about how Romney can pull this off, but even if he clarifies and amplifies the message of running on Reaganism, he’ll need the party regulars to get off the bench. Independent-powered victories for McCain in New Hampshire and Michigan won’t matter if they are understood as such, but Romney has to let the party of Reagan know that both Huckabee and McCain want it broken up and sold off in pieces. He or Rudy need to win in Florida, or achieve a three way tie with McCain to put the campaign back into the hands of the people who built the party over the past 28 years.
O’Sullivan is absolutely right on: “It seems clear that we should do all we can to help revive the Romney campaign.”
I’ll be listening to Rush, Sean, Laura and the rest (my friend Michael Medved has thrown in with McCain) and reading the blogs to see if surrender has set in, or whether the coalition that Reagan built is worth fighting for.
Romney, can you save us!
Malkinvania wants Obama to stop playing the race card.
Ok. Now that Barack Obama has won a resounding victory in 94.9 percent white Iowa, will the MSM and the Dems stop yammering about racist, un-diverse voters already? The bigotry concern troll act is getting old and tired. Not as old and tired as Hillary Clinton’s campaign. But close.
Somebody needs to break it to her that the voters she’s talking about are backing that Huckabee guy. Oh well. Be gentle. Maybe the Weekly Standard guys can explain Obama for her.
Obama opens with a joke at Hillary’s expense, saying, “This feels good. It’s just like I imagined it when I talked about it with my kindergarten teacher.” But after that, his remarks ramble a bit, nothing like the soaring victory speech he gave last night. In his laundry list of changes, he says that he’ll end our dependence on oil and solve climate change and get our troops out of Iraq and stop using the “fear” of 9/11 and terrorism to scare citizens. These four tropes tumble out of his mouth one after another, with no further explanation, to enthusiastic applause.
But the bulk of his speech, as usual, centers around a defense of “hope.” He trots out the same progression he used last night of how hope spurred on the Founding Fathers, the Union forces, the Greatest Generation, the suffragettes, and the civil rights movement. But he doesn’t have command of his fastball this morning and the speech feels a bit rote. And when the “hope” speech is flat, it’s immediately obvious how empty it is of any seriousness.
“We will remake America and then we will change the world!” he shouts during his big finish. That’s an ambitious goal, and one which most Democrats normally seem quite opposed to. After all, what is the Bush Doctrine if not a commitment to changing the world?
But for His Hopeness, none of that matters. At least not today.
See, Obama is Bush. Only…umm…Hawaiian. Or something.
Ehh, screw it. These guys are all idiots.
