Thursday, January 5, 2012

The Election's Over; Here's Why

Never underestimate the Republican Party's ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of what should be the easiest of victories.  In 2008, the party countered the Democrats' nomination of the single-weakest and most inexperienced nominee in their history by putting forth the least inspiring candidate imaginable.  Fast forward to the current race and what do some in the GOP establishment consider worthy of discussion?  Jon Huntsman's malicious truth regarding the state of the nation. 

Former White House Press Secretary and current Fox pundit Dana Perino got a case of the vapors because Huntsman's summation of things included the word "screwed" in a campaign commercial.  Screwed.  Really?  If anything, Hunstman did not go far enough.  A more accurate assessment would have been to say that things are FUBAR'ed to an exponential level.  Those unfamiliar with this acronym should take a minute and work through it; it is not too difficult.  I say Huntsman took the rhetorically high road because of FCC rules; Perino found it unbefitting a presidential candidate and THAT is why the election is over.  Why?  Because it reveals Republicans as the spineless party unwilling to win a race that is theirs for the taking, preferring instead to hide behind a misguided sense of gentility.  

Obama accuses Republicans of wanting "dirty air, dirty water" and host of other horribles; Republican candidate Newt Gingrich gets his knickers in a knot over some ads run by a political action committee that favors Mitt Romney.  Obama purposely circumvents the Constitution with a recess appointment done in the absence of an actual Congressional recess; Republicans continue searching for the mythical 'perfect' candidate.  Obama's approval ratings are on a par with Carter's in an economy that is even worse than what Jimmah left behind, and Republicans are hell-bent on seeing to it that he gets another four years. 

All of this, of course, obscures the larger point - the system is broken, perhaps irretrievably.  There is not a nickel's worth of difference Dems and Repubs in Washington; of the 535 members of Congress, maybe 100 do more than give lip service to things like out of control spending, a 15-trillion dollar debt, and the continuing encroachment of govt into people's lives.  And of those 100, you saw how the Tea Party newbies from the 2010 election were treated for daring to suggest that spending be corraled.  Not only did Dems and the media assault them as kooks, radicals, and dangerous people, so did a good number of Repubs and a fair chunk of so-called conservative press.  Again, Huntsman told the truth and in far less graphic terms than the situation demands but the prissy wing of the party chooses to clutch its pearls over his choice of words than to acknowledge the reality behind them.