The GOP’s Self-Destruction Derby

I comment frequently on the - at least to me - long term suicide wish of the Republican Party. This death wish is being aided and abetted by the news media that inflates the attention given to lunatic candidates and does nothing to rein the party back to a semi-tethered reality basis. Also aiding in this free for all is media whore Sarah Palin who continues to have a tempestuous love affair with herself. That anyone can view this woman as a serious candidate for the U. S. presidency is strong condemnation of what the GOP has become: a party of racists, religious extremists, and those who revel in their own ignorance. It's scary to watch. Gene Robinson has a column in the Washington Post that looks at the phenomenon. Here are some highlights:
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What the GOP should worry about is the intoxication that adoring crowds often induce in politicians. Palin might board the bus intending to pull a Trump and disembark convinced that now, more than ever, the nation requires her service. The hosannas ringing in her ears might deafen her to voices of reason.
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Odds are it won’t happen. But the fact that Palin’s ego trip so easily stole the spotlight from the actual Republican candidates shows what a challenge the party faces in trying to deny President Obama a second term.
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Pawlenty, like the other candidates, had to be polite when asked about Palin because her followers can be passionate and unforgiving. By Friday, he was clearly exasperated. “Who knows? I don’t know if she’s running or not,” he said on MSNBC. “We need to quit worrying about polls and bus tours and get onto the issue of how we’re going to fix the country and get the country back on track.”
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Then again, that “fix the country” issue wasn’t working all that well, either. Last Tuesday, in a special election, Republicans lost a safe congressional seat in Upstate New York because of their candidate’s support for Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget, which would transform Medicare into a voucher program. On Wednesday, Pawlenty spent most of the day trying to avoid saying whether or not he supported the Ryan plan.
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Meanwhile, Pawlenty’s fellow Minnesotan, Rep. Michele Bachmann, pretty much confirmed that she’s about to declare her candidacy. She scheduled a speech about her presidential plans for sometime in June in Waterloo, Iowa, where she was born. . . . Bachmann’s entry would ensure a plethora of lazy, unambitious news stories comparing her to Palin — stories with an unfair and sexist “catfight” subtext. Each deserves to be evaluated in her own right, as just one of many unpromising potential GOP candidates, male and female, who allow Democratic strategists to sleep well at night.
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This bleak panorama boosts the chances of Mitt Romney, who has to be considered the clear front-runner. He has the money, the experience, the hair, the smile — he looks and sounds like a presidential candidate, which is more than can be said of the competition.
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Romney hasn’t been in the headlines recently, and this would normally be considered a bad sign for a candidate. But the way his opponents are self-destructing, I’d advise him to remain in a secure, undisclosed location until next year’s GOP convention — and if Palin’s bus should happen to drive past his hideout, just wave.