Keep an Eye on the GOP for 2008

The MSM -- and this site -- have been all gaga over the Democrats who are running for the White House in 2008. The media love Obama, Clinton, and Edwards. Everyone else, including the GOP contenders, are getting much less coverage (aside from, perhaps, Giuliani). As a bleeding-heart, pinko leftist, I have pretty much ignored the other side of the spectrum. David Shribman, writing over at RealClearPolitics, thinks that might be a mistake. He thinks the GOP is going through some soul-searching and might produce an interesting race.

Personally, I think Giuliani and, if he enters the race, Chuck Hagel are the GOP's best hope of winning the White House in the current political climate. But much can change over the next year.

Here is some of the article:

It isn't only the Democrats who are going through an identity crisis. The Republicans are, too. There's been a Bush or a Dole on every GOP ticket for the last seven elections. There's been a prominent role for religious conservatives in each of those elections. This may be the election when the Republicans' conviction that they have replaced the Democrats as the natural party of executive government will be tested.

The Democratic race is interesting because of the personalities involved, because of the novelty factor of having a female front-runner and a strong black challenger, but there's no mystery about what the Democratic ticket will stand for next year. It will oppose the war in Iraq, oppose the Bush tax cuts, favor a stronger regulatory state and favor vigorous action to fight global warming.

The Republican race lacks such colorful personalities, its only novelty factors being these two questions: Can a party in the post-boomer era actually nominate someone older than Ronald Reagan was when he was elected? Can a party competing in a post-diversity nation nominate a Mormon for president? There actually are a Bush and a Dole who could be nominated, just for old times' sake, but the Bush (Jeb, the former governor of Florida) has said he's not interested, and the Dole (Elizabeth, the senator from North Carolina) performed so poorly as chief of the Republican senatorial campaign effort that she couldn't get a hearing.

A year from the Iowa precinct caucuses and New Hampshire primary, you've got to wonder what the Republicans are going to do.

Read the whole article.

Tags: GOP, 2008 presidential race, RealClearPolitics, David Shribman, John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Chuck Hagel, primaries