Republican Party Tearing Itself Apart

As noted in The Economist:

The Republicans look like dead men walking. Almost two-thirds of Americans regard the Iraq war as a mistake. A similar proportion think that the country is on the wrong track. Americans regard the Democrats as more competent than Republicans by a margin of five to three and more ethical by a margin of two to one. They prefer Democratic policies on everything from health care to taxes.

These figures have come to life in Iowa and New Hampshire. Twice as many Democrats turned out to caucus in Iowa as Republicans. The Democrats are fired up with Bush-hatred and ready to take the White House. The Republicans are despondent and defensive. “I'd rather vote for a dead dog than a Democrat”, one New Hampshirite told this columnist. “But the way things are going it might have to be the dead dog.”
...
The party is divided into warring factions. Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee have as much in common as their respective alma maters—Harvard Business School and Ouachita Baptist University. The party is also in danger of going off the deep end. Mr Huckabee denies that man is descended from the apes. Everyone except Mr McCain seems to think that it's a good plan to send 12m illegal immigrants back home.

It strikes me that Republican coalition between social and economic conservatives is under very serious strain. Much of this is to blame on the lack of a really good candidate on the Republican side. Someone who truly embodies and believes in the majority of the Reblubican agenda. But the George Bush presidency is also in large part responsible. As the article above also notes:

Mr Bush's people pursued a self-defeating political strategy. They fired up the Republican base, ignoring the centre and rewarding their loyalists with government largesse. But Mr Bush's serial incompetence destroyed his narrow majority. And his addiction to government spending alienated fiscal conservatives.
Mr Bush's Republicans also made serious policy errors. They stuck their head in the sand over global warming. They ignored rising anxiety about stagnating middle-class incomes. They turned the war on terrorism into a defining issue and then messed it up.

Perhaps soon, Republicans will begin to see, as the Democrats have for years, just how bad this President has been. Ironically it is not the damage he has done to America that will cause Republicans to come to this realization, but the damage he has done to the Republican Party. Which may tell you something about their loyalties, and more to the point suggests that they have no one but themselves to blame for the complete mess that is today's GOP. Even more ironic, is that the only person that can reunite this party by November is not one of the Republican presidential candidates, but Hillary Clinton. If there is one issue around which all Republicans can come together, it is in their joint hatred of Madame Hillary.

Just one more reason to Vote Obama.

Peace,

Donkey