…[M]ore than health care legislation is in trouble. I have not seen a party’s fortunes collapse so suddenly since Richard Nixon got caught up in the Watergate scandal and a president who carried 49 states was threatened with impeachment and removal from office.
The victory of a Democrat in the special election to fill Vice President Gerald Ford’s House seat in February 1974 was a clear indication that the bottom had fallen out for the Republican Party. Brown’s victory last week looks as if something similar has happened to the Democratic Party.
Many people ask me whether the Democrats are in as much trouble as they were in 1994. The numbers suggest they are in much deeper trouble, at least at this moment.
Michael Barone – “Democrats fall as fast as Nixon Republicans in 1974″ – Washington Examiner.
Comments 7
Things are so bad for them because Mister P is helpless. He can’t help being who he is. He’d loose face. They’d have to build a dog house in the White House Yard for him if he ever admitted he was wrong. If he admitted he was wrong, that would mean that all of the pwogwessive mish mash was wrong. So he’s gonna show all you racist honkeys just how hard he can fight.
Remember those guys they dropped charges on in Philly?
They’re gonna be stationed outside the White House starting tomorrow.
January 27th, 2010 at 11:06 am
Barone should roll out the whole timeline, which later saw the Democrats lose the Oval Office and the Senate less than a decade after 1974.
GOP needs some message. All the “message” is coming from Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Sarah Palin, none of whom holds public office.
The other guy’s prowess in bombing his foot isn’t a perennial winning hand. The apparently short-lived resurgence of the Democrats in 2006 and 2008 is another testament to that. One compelling, memorable statement of principle — as opposed to wonkish policy proposal — from a high-ranking Republican would be worth a thousand reports of the Donkey in extremis.
January 27th, 2010 at 3:30 pm
@ J.E. Dyer:
Did you read the Castellanos piece at NR on the “New Republican”? It runs a bit long, but he did an interesting job I thought of grasping toward the libertarian language that the Republicans… or someone… should have been embracing after Y2K, but whose possibilities may have been sidetracked by the double blow to American confidence of the Nasdaq crash and 9/11, then further sidelined by the WOT, Compassionate Conservatism, and bubble economics. (Sheesh – looking at all that I’m almost surprised we’re still standing – tho Rex might say we only seem to be standing.)
When I’m back to origi-posting, I might do a more detailed take on it. If you’ve got some mental time on your hands, and are so moved, feel free to pre-empt me. BTW, did you ever read Virginia Postrel’s THE FUTURE AND ITS ENEMIES? I see her influence in the piece.
January 27th, 2010 at 4:05 pm
Let us hope that we are witnessing the high water mark of The 0bamic Period, which lasted for nearly 12 months.
Because the pwogwessive stalwarts are perfect models of hubris, they may not ever recognize that they are done, as done as one of Madonna’s old boyfriends, as done as an old phonograph needle.
Fifty years from now, can we hope that there will be a special room devoted to The Short Reign of Bawwick in the basement of The Smithsonian.
January 27th, 2010 at 4:49 pm
@JE Dyer
My Paisan, Alex wrote seven pages without saying much of anything, fine sentiments but where is the policy, the substance that he says
we are missing
January 27th, 2010 at 5:02 pm
…[M]ore than health care legislation is in trouble. I have not seen a party’s fortunes collapse so suddenly since Richard Nixon
Nixon was in from 1968-1975;how about LBJ,he won big in 1964,and was finished in 1967.
January 27th, 2010 at 5:36 pm
Es mejor en Espaniol.
Esta noche, mis hermanos!
Hasta la victoria siempre.
Todos nosotros venceremos.
Yo tuvo un sueno.
No es about mi?
NO NO NO
Los republicanos dice yo necissito rehab!
NO NO NO
Los pendejos de Wall Estreet ninguna nada!
Nosotros familias venceremos.
Toda el mundo quere mi, Senior Peanut!
Pero no esta de mi!
Yo quiero nada para mi!
January 27th, 2010 at 6:22 pm