Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Krauthammer's Take   [NRO Staff]

From last night's Fox News All-Stars.

 

On Dede Scozzafava’s dropping out of the NY-23 race:

 

This idea that it is limiting the tent of Republicans is absurd. She is not a moderate. She is a liberal.

 

As you said about [her support for] the stimulus, but also she is for card check, which is the abolition of the secret balloting of union elections. That isn't a moderate position. That is a left-wing position. Even a lot of Democrats are ambivalent about that.

 

So it's not just social issues, which is how liberals are portraying the election: If you're not down the line on social issues you will be read out of the Republican Party.

 

She was not a Republican and she showed it. It took a half a day and she turned on the party. She was a liberal.…

 

The message here is that there is a true revolt. There is an opposition — grassroots — in the country to the overall Obama agenda. It is about high taxes, about expanding the government, it is about expanding the reach of government. It is about government control.

 

It is a fundamental and important movement. If the Republicans ignore it — it's the engine of recovering the House and the Senate — if it's ignored and tamped down in the name of appeasing independents and the name of acting as a liberal, that's an absurd strategy.

 

On the Republicans leading in several races:

 

It tells you that '08 was a charisma election, a one-shot deal, and all this talk about realignment, about a new era, of the death of Republicanism or conservatism is utter nonsense.

 

It was an unusual election last year. All the stars were aligned Democratic, charismatic candidate. Still only a seven point victory. The return to the norm is happening now, and we're going to see it tomorrow night.

 

On Abdullah Abdullah’s dropping out of the Afghan presidential election run-off:

 

It has no effect. The Obama excuse for all the agonizing and the waiting and deliberating over troop levels — the excuse had been, well, we really can't decide this unless the taint of this election is removed and until we are really sure about who our partner is — was always a fig leaf. It was always an excuse.

 

It was a weak and corrupt government before and it is today. And nobody expected anything different.

 

Look, the reason Obama has been agonizing is not because he has concerns about the composition of the government in Afghanistan. He is worried about the composition of the government in the United States, meaning whether his popularity would suffer if he went with the generals, whether the Democrats are going to lose seats in the House and the Senate next year, and, overall, whether or not he will be able to pass his cherished domestic agenda if he alienates his left by accepting an escalation of the war.

 

…The question is, he said it is a war of necessity. Does he believe it? And that's the real issue. If you're going to go into war and escalate a war, you have to have a commander in chief who believes in the war.

 

And the way he has acted it looks as if, even if he decided he would go into it [full-scale counterinsurgency], he will be half-hearted. And do you want a war that escalates with a half-hearted commitment [by] the commander in chief? It's a real issue.

11/03 11:15 AMShare