Is The GOP DOA? Sounds Like It From Here

I listened to Newt Gingrich embarrass himself on Sean Hannity's show a while ago. It wasn't that I disagreed with his shtick on Obama's "we-ness" thing. It was how old and small-minded the usual GOP "they'll raise your taxes" meme they've been peddling for years sounded as Gingrich basically mocked Obama rather crudely.

I get that. But it isn't a response. It's only funny if you're a GOP partisan. And then I read this from Jim Geraghty - someone I very much respect. You can dismiss it intellectually all you want - and perhaps rightfully so - but if the GOP doesn't understand how these themes resonate with the middle class, particularly women in this case - they're doomed come November. It's looking like the GOP has one hope - this election better hinge on foreign affairs. And in the mean time, the GOP had better find a message for younger voters and the middle class.

In light of the controversy of her recent comments, it may be worthwhile to look at these comments from Michelle Obama, back on April 16, 2007:

But seriously, with the exception of the campaign trail and life in the public eye, I have to say that my life now is not really that much different from many of yours. I wake up every morning wondering how on earth I am going to pull off that next minor miracle to get through the day. I know that everybody in this room is going through this. That is the dilemma women face today. Every woman that I know, regardless of race, education, income, background, political affiliation, is struggling to keep her head above water. We try to convince ourselves that somehow doing it all is a badge of honor, but for many of us it is a necessity and we have to be very careful not to lose ourselves in the process. More often than not, we as women, are the primary caretakers in our households, scheduling babysitters, planning play dates, keeping up with regular doctor’s appointments; this was my week last week, supervising homework, handing our discipline. Usually we are the ones in charge of keeping the household together. I know you men, I know that you guys try to do your part, but the reality is that we’re doing it, right? (laughter and applause) Laundry, cleaning, cooking, shopping, home repairs. You know Barack has my back, he’s right there with me, feels my pain, and all that. (laughter)

Comments

[Terry Gain]

These comments are incredible. Of the more than 3 billion women who inhabit this planet few have it better than Michelle Obama, yet she struggles to get through every day? She seems more suited to hospitalization and extensive reality therapy than a stint as First Lady.

Hopefully this statement will get wide play and it will start to sink into the minds of ordinary Americans what's in store for America if this incredibly egocentric woman's incredibibly unqualified husband is elected to the nation's highest office.

[Dan Riehl]

You're kidding yourself, Terry. In some ways, you apparently don't appreciate how soft America really has become. We're a comfortable nation. And comfortable people have time to complain.

[Terry Gain]

I disagree Dan. Her husband is supposed to make everything better. How equipped is he for that when his wife says she struggles to get through every day?

Perhaps it's just talk but, if so, why listen? How is this supposed to resonate with the 99% of the population who are less well off than the Hussein Obamas?

[Dan Riehl]

"the 99% of"

Terry - you're talking about a population that thinks American Idol and Oprah are substantial contributions to American culture.

[LifeTrek]

While the everyday lives of mothers in America are heroic, where is it governments responsibility to, "make it all better?" The level of desire the left has for the government to fix it all is truly frightening.
DKK

[seekeronos]

"--- you're talking about a population that thinks American Idol and Oprah are substantial contributions to American culture. ---"

This is a grave problem, indeed.

[Black Redneck]

I liked Newt's we-ness thing but I agree with your larger point that the GOP had better get a new game plan. I find Ms. Hussein's speech to be trite and tedious but understand that it's pitch perfect for her audience. Also, republicans are positively gleeful that the dems have turned on the Clintons. Okay, I'm loving that, too. But some clueless republicans are gloating that the lefties are now seeing the "true" Clintons. Hogwash!! The dems have always known that the Clintons are lying, corrupt sleaze mongers but they didn't care. Obama's an empty suit. So long as he wins, the dems don't care. Here I am, ready and willing to fight, and I realize that the GOP has brought a knife to a gunfight. Any GOP talking head that is relying on "substance" to defeat Obama is an idiot. They will be shocked when they are crushed by Obamania. In 2006, when Hugh Hewitt and others kept going on about how you can't beat something with nothing, I was yelling at the radio "have you ever heard of high school, Sanjaya, the Macarena (fill in the blank)?" And have you noticed that the pundits who argue that Obama is a fad are the same ones that say conservatives have to vote for McCain just cause he's the republican nominee? As if the Dems aren't going to line up and vote for Hilary or Obama so long as they have a D after their name.

[LOL]

This is great. Wingnuts are relegated to praying for massive deaths in the USA in order to achieve electoral victory.

[elixelx]

"The mass of men live lives of quiet desperation..." Thoreau

"Every woman that I know..." "everybody in this room" Michelle

Is this cri de couer about WOMEN or really just about MICHELLE?

The Harvard-educated, happily-married, superficially-made-over Michelle channels the unmitigated tragedy of illiterate, unmarried mothers, and women trapped in brutal, abusive, loveless marriages and their existential struggles as though she were au fait with every single one and all of them.

She awakens to their pain every day of her pampered, misbegotten life.

I wonder if the women that she knows, or the women in that room, really feel in their own skin the weltschmerz that Michelle suffers.

Are these "just words", the turbid ramblings of a shameless hypocrite in her rapidly-approaching menopause? Or, far more likely, "unjust words", an attempt to blame biology for her sufferings.

[syn]

I am female and Michelle's weak-sister talk is the main reason why I now avoid feminists in general. We 'feminists' were suppose to be liberated, independent, and empowered only to end up obnoxious, whiny, hapless children incapable of holding our own.

I grew up believing the 'male chauvinst pig' crap until National Organization of Women came to the defense of and supported a notorious male chauvanist pig; it was at that moment I recognized that feminism was a fraud and I had been lied too by a bunch of weak and whiny sisters. Weak sisters don't struggle, they bitch and moan then demand some botox to stiffen their crying faces.

Some glass ceiling was broken, aborting our way to the top while castrating all else to the bottom.

Not proud to call myself 'feminist'.

[Fred Beloit]

This has got to be a Saturday Night satirical line: "...we as women, are the primary caretakers in our households, scheduling babysitters,..."
Listen, my heart is bleeding for this poor soul. Scheduling is such backbreaking work.

The GOP's message should be simple: Both Dem candidates are Marxists. Marxism has been tried often. It doesn't work very well. America works very well. Look around you. Look at your possessions. Look at your opportunities. Look at your house. Look at your town, it's facilities and cultural institutions.

Now look at China, look at Cuba. Look at how far the countries who freed themselves from the former Marxist Soviet Union have come to prosperity.

Changing our political system to Marxism is bad. THIS IS ONE CHANGE THAT IS V-E-R-Y B-A-D.

[IslamoLlama]

"--It's looking like the GOP has one hope - this election better hinge on foreign affairs.--"

And it will. This election will boil down to Iraq, Iraq, Iraq, as much as anything. It's the winningest play in the Dem's playbook. Recessions are bad, but harder to pin on a particular party (as I'll happily admit Bush was hardly responsible for the mortgage crisis, even if he was complacent in the face of it). Universal Health Care is a future proposal, with all the amorphous uncertainties that carries. Much harder to run on a promise than a reality. And Iraq is a daily reality - to our budget, to our soldiers, to our headline news, and to our politics.

McCain isn't going to lose because he lacks "seriousness" as a candidate or because he's too liberal/moderate/conservative. He's going to lose because he's Pro-Iraq War through 2108, and the rest of America isn't.

[tally]

this attitude drives me freaking crazy, the answer is so simple. don't have kids, some people aren't suited until later in life. no big deal.