Zandar's Thought Of The Day

Why pretend you have any solutions at all for voters in 2010 when you can just blame Obama?  Even the Villagers see the obvious benefits in the GOP plan now.

Behind the scenes, many are being urged to ignore the leaders and do just the opposite: avoid issues at all costs. Some of the party's most influential political consultants are quietly counseling their clients to stay on the offensive for the November midterm elections and steer clear of taking stands on substance that might give Democratic opponents material for a counterattack.

"The smart political approach would be to make the election about the Democrats," said Neil Newhouse of the powerhouse Republican polling firm Public Opinion Strategies, which is advising more than 50 House and Senate candidates. "In terms of our individual campaigns, I don't think it does a great deal of good" to engage in a debate over the Republicans' own agenda.

Others are skeptical that any Republican policy proposals will have much of an impact. "They really still have to have a sharp contrast with the Democrats," said John McLaughlin, another leading Republican pollster whose firm counts both the House and Senate campaign committees among its clients. "They really need to drive that home before people will be willing to listen to what Republicans stand for."

It's not that Boehner (Ohio) is arguing for a cease-fire. The debate among Republicans comes down to this: The speaker-in-waiting, for all his love of political combat, thinks that voters will not trust GOP candidates if their attacks don't also provide at least some substance. The consultants argue that public anger, if properly stoked, alone can carry the party over the finish line. In their view, getting bogged down in the issues is a distraction and even a potential liability. 

The lesson the GOP spin machine has taken away from 2006 and 2008 is "specifics don't matter, stoking anger against Obama does."  That's all they've got under their thin cloak of populist Teabagger rage.  "Throw out the hated Dems!  Throw out the people taking away my country from me!  Those people and their allies are ruining my country and I'll be damned if I let people like them be in charge!"

The problem is, this inchoate rage is almost certain to work.  All the Republican consultants want to do is eliminate the jumping through hoops and contortions of twisted logic that Republican candidates and members of Congress have to go through.  If they all just agree that they hate hate hate hate President Obama then they're on the same page.

All this is...this is honesty about the Republican party in 2010.  They have no solutions.  They have no coherent plan.  They have no pretense anymore of being anything other than the last gasp of the most broken and diseased parts of 20th century culture.

They don't need any other platform other than "We Hate Obama".  And if we ignore them, they won't go away.

They'll win.

Time to fight back.  The Republicans certainly plan to.