Winning strategy? GOP stakes its future on opposing Obama
WASHINGTON — Has the Republican Party, whose presidential candidate and dozens of congressional hopefuls were rejected by voters in November, already been reinvigorated by its opposition to President Barack Obama?
Party officials think so. They proudly point to the fact that all the GOP members of the House of Representatives stuck together last week and voted against the Democrats’ $819 billion economic stimulus plan, and to how the Senate, which is due to begin debate on the plan Monday, is full of similarly skeptical Republicans.
“We’ll look back to that (House) vote as one of the most significant votes Republicans cast. It gave them a very coherent voice,” said Michael Franc, a political analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation.
The vote was a public demonstration of independence from Obama, who took the unusual step of meeting privately with congressional Republicans the day before the House vote. It also demonstrated what Republicans stand for, notably bigger tax cuts and less government spending.
The strategy carries enormous risks, however, because it could suggest that Republicans are eager to put the brakes on emergency aid to millions of Americans who are trying to survive what’s fast becoming the nation’s worst economic downturn since World War II.
It also creates a risk that the GOP, which no longer has a single House member from any of the six New England states and no senators from a Pacific coast state, is in danger of becoming a regional, ideologically focused party.
more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/61112.html
And more here from The Democratic Stategist: http://www.thedemocraticstrategist.org/
And from EJ here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/01/AR2009020101000.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
And from MacGillis and Kane at WP: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/01/AR2009020102066.html
