bobbyw24
10-19-2009, 06:00 AM
Republican optimism may get scotched by reality
By: Chris Stirewalt
October 19, 2009
Republicans finally have reason to like the polls after four years of unrelenting bad news.
But like a preseason top-10 football team, the optimism might only last until the first quarterback sack.
In just six months, the GOP has clawed its way back from near irrelevancy. It has closed a 10-point gap in the generic ballot for the 2010 House election and become competitive in contests in previously safe Democratic states like Delaware, Illinois, New Jersey and Connecticut.
Some of that can be credited to pragmatic candidate recruitment. With the exception of misreading the strength of Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, the Republican establishment has made smart bets on which candidates would run well in various jurisdictions.
The candidacy of middle-of-the-road Rep. Mark Kirk in Illinois, for instance, might have ignited a range war in years past. This was a state party that offered up provocateur Alan Keyes against Barack Obama for Senate in 2004 in a cheesy bit of racial profiling. Now, the tantalizing thought of having a Republican -- even a squishy one -- in the president's old seat seems to have suppressed most cannibalistic instincts.
Another reason for the improvement is that in an era of a $1.42 trillion deficit, being labeled as the "Party of No" has turned out to be a great blessing.
Americans saw the Democratic majority begin a string of staggering initiatives this year. But a stimulus that does not hold down unemployment, not to mention huge outlays
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Republican-optimism-may-get-scotched-by-reality-8396144-64704292.html
By: Chris Stirewalt
October 19, 2009
Republicans finally have reason to like the polls after four years of unrelenting bad news.
But like a preseason top-10 football team, the optimism might only last until the first quarterback sack.
In just six months, the GOP has clawed its way back from near irrelevancy. It has closed a 10-point gap in the generic ballot for the 2010 House election and become competitive in contests in previously safe Democratic states like Delaware, Illinois, New Jersey and Connecticut.
Some of that can be credited to pragmatic candidate recruitment. With the exception of misreading the strength of Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, the Republican establishment has made smart bets on which candidates would run well in various jurisdictions.
The candidacy of middle-of-the-road Rep. Mark Kirk in Illinois, for instance, might have ignited a range war in years past. This was a state party that offered up provocateur Alan Keyes against Barack Obama for Senate in 2004 in a cheesy bit of racial profiling. Now, the tantalizing thought of having a Republican -- even a squishy one -- in the president's old seat seems to have suppressed most cannibalistic instincts.
Another reason for the improvement is that in an era of a $1.42 trillion deficit, being labeled as the "Party of No" has turned out to be a great blessing.
Americans saw the Democratic majority begin a string of staggering initiatives this year. But a stimulus that does not hold down unemployment, not to mention huge outlays
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Republican-optimism-may-get-scotched-by-reality-8396144-64704292.html