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HOME I ABOUT EWR I PREVIOUS ARTICLES I PHILOSOPHY BOARD I LUMINOUS LINKS I EMAIL EWROSS I BOOK A SPEECH |
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KISS THE REPUBLICAN PARTY GOODBYE Republican Presidential Prospects Fall by the Wayside July 6, 2009 In September 2008, I wrote a column titled “Kiss the Democratic Party Goodbye” based on a quote from Robert Redford. The liberal Democrat and Obama supporter, speaking in July 2008 at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, said that if Barack Obama loses the 2008 presidential election, “you can kiss the Democratic Party goodbye.” This July, someone's bound to say that if the Republican Party can't recapture the White House in 2012, you can kiss the Republican Party goodbye. The 2012 election is still a long way off, but already Republican presidential candidates are falling by the wayside. On June 16, Republican Senator John Ensign of Nevada, a leading conservative often mentioned as a potential presidential candidate, admitted he had an extramarital affair with a woman on his campaign staff. Ensign, the fourth-ranking member of the Republican leadership and chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, resigned that position but said he would remain in the Senate. Whatever presidential prospects he may have had, however, dropped off the charts. On June 23, after mysteriously going AWOL for seven days, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford emerged and admitted in a press conference that he had flown to Argentina to visit a woman with whom he was having an affair. In subsequent statements he admitted that he had “crossed the line” with other women, although not sexually. Compounding Sanford’s indiscretions was his inability to stop talking about them. Sanford resigned his position as Chairman of the Republican Governors Association but said he would remain as South Carolina’s governor. His presidential prospects also disappeared. These events, as jolting and demoralizing as they were to Republicans, proved only to be warning tremors for the big earthquake to come. On July 3, Sarah Palin announced that she would not run for a second term as Alaska’s governor and that she would resign, a year and a half early, on July 26. Many commentators and pundits immediately said this was a foolish move that destroyed whatever prospects she had for ever winning the presidency. Palin tends to make her own rules, but there are some rules in politics you ignore at your peril. American voters generally don’t like quitters.
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Copyright © Edward W. Ross 2008 All Rights Reserved HOME I ABOUT EWR I PREVIOUS ARTICLES I PHILOSOPHY BOARD I LUMINOUS LINKS I EMAIL EWROSS I BOOK A SPEECH |
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