Thursday, April 24, 2008

Re: Are Republicans smiling too much?   [Mark Steyn]

Ramesh, re excessive GOP pleasure in Democrat primary woes, I wouldn't put it any higher than the faintest whiff of a vague possibility that, however bad things are on the Republican side, for the Democrat scenario could be of an entirely different order.

What's the worst that could happen to the Republicans this fall?

McCain loses, there's some further attrition in the House and Senate. In other words, just more of the genteel decline of a listless GOP that seems all out of ideological gas.

What's the best that could happen?

McCain wins, the attrition in the House and Senate is modestly reversed. A maverick president gets to enact big bipartisan "reforms" with a Democrat Congress. GOP continues to decline.

What's the best that could happen to the Democrats?

Obama wins. History is made. In the dazzling sheen of his Kennedyesque glamour, no-one will dare obstruct his transformative reforms.

What's the worst?

Hillary manages to deny him the nomination, or he gets it but loses on a McGovernite scale. Traumatic meltdown, bitterness, civil war in the party, etc, leading perhaps to the sundering of key elements of the Dem coalition.

The stakes are greater on the Democrat side: a deliriously happy ending or a catastrophic one.

04/24 03:14 PMShare