More "Republicans should move to the Center" talk, this time from the Charlie Cook Report

by Eric Dondero

What a putz. Yeah, the label applies to Charlie Cook too, cause he seemingly sides with this un-named schmuck "bigtime Republican DC Consultant," who says that the problem with the GOP is that it's not Centrist enough.

From Cook:

A key question to consider is whether Republicans can quickly address the fundamental problems facing their party, or whether they ignore or misdiagnose their problems and wait for Democrats to self-destruct. In several conversations with some of the smartest Republican pollsters and strategists, it's clear that many have a good fix on the problems of their party. However, there is considerable concern that many elected officials and constituent groups within the GOP are reluctant to hear the advice these consultants feel they need.

From the un-named BigShit Political Consultant:

"Second, the shallowness of our policies. Republicans are a whole lot better at being against things than at being for things.... education and health care, we do one of two things. We either avoid them like the plague and are scared to talk about them or, if we say anything at all, it is to propose a tax cut or a tax credit.

Many Republican commentators point out that, even though we lost, this is still a center-right country. It seems to me that statement misses the point. People have changed, although they have not changed the labels they use. There are clearly more people now who want government to address the problems they have to deal with than used to think so in the past. Conversely, there are fewer people now who do not want government involved."[emphasis added]

So, the message is, that the GOP wasn't centrist enough. The problem wasn't that the GOP failed to energize the Right.

And this, the day after Saxby Chambliss wins the election in Georgia by 20 points, 60 to 40% over his big government Democrat rival. Why was Chamblis in a run-off to begin with? Because of the Libertarian Party. 3.5% of voters, cast their vote for Libertarian John Buckley on Nov. 4, mostly to send a signal to Chambliss that they were super-pissed off at his vote in favor of the Government Bailout of the Banks and Financial Industry.

The Libertarian Party improved their Presidential vote total by nearly 140,000 votes over 2004. Libertarian Bob Barr ended up with 520,200 votes. In 2004 the Party polled 380,000. A 140,000 vote improvement for the radically anti-government Libertarian Party. Yup, that shows -- Mr. BigShit -- that there are "clearly" less people who don't want government involved, alright.

The Constitution Party with a pretty obscure candidate, polled nearly 200,000 votes this year. That's 725,000 disgruntled voters on the Right.

And how many more stayed at home, and just said "'F' it, I ain't votin'"?

Mr. Cook's friend believes that the problem the Republican Party has is with the Center? Move the Party more to the Center for 2010, and 2012, and watch how the LP's and CP's vote totals increase. Watch how many more voters on the Right get disenchanted with the GOP, and just stay home.