Serial mental midget Hugh Hewitt, still licking his wounds after his candidate Mitt Romney went down in flames, makes this observation about the Democratic race:
The GOP is unsettled right now, but the smash-up underway within the Democrats could easily become the biggest since their 1968-1972 convulsions.
The presumptive Republican nominee is actively hated by about 40% of the base. The sitting Republican president has at best a 30% approval rating. The mood of the nation, especially among independents, is decidedly shifting in the Democratic position. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are attracting something like 65% more voters to Democratic primaries.
Yes, friends, this is obviously good for Republicans.
* (Repack Rider said it first)
Thanks for the h/t. Of course, I stole it from Atrios.
I saw a poll that showed 84% of Obama supporters would be happy with Hillary Clinton. And 84% of Clinton supporters would be happy with Obama.
I saw another poll that showed only 51% of Republicans are happy with McCain and 45% want another candidate.
There’s no amount of spin that makes that look good for the GOP.
Oliver, I think you’re taking Hewitt’s comments a bit out of context as you are relating them to the Presidential race and voters, whereas he is talking about the party itself.
Yes, the vast majority of Democrats are going to vote for whoever the nominee is because the candidate is going to be a Democrat.
But even you know what kind of shake-up an Obama candidacy would mean for the Democratic Party and that’s why the establishment has been so hell bent on trying to reverse the trend. Let’s face it. They assumed Obama would be just another Howard Dean, making a big splash with the media, living on hype for a little while and then fading away. Obviously that is not the case, and Hillary now knows she needs to win Texas and Ohio to keep her campaign from dying out.
You’ve reacted strongly to things that have been said about Obama by those who support Hillary and it’s not just about helping Hillary. In Obama, they see something different. They see a candidate that would shake the foundations of the Democratic party as it exists – not with regard to policy, but in how that policy is enacted. I mean, why do you think he appeals to a conservative like me despite my differences with him on policy? Somebody said (a black gentleman and progressive who comments on my blog often) that Obama is not really running as an agent of change, but he’s a symbol of change. Not just for the country, but for the Democratic party as well.
As such, I don’t see Hewitt making any statement that this is good for the GOP. He’s merely talking about what effect this would have on the Democratic Party.
Right. Because some Obama supporters call Hillary a poopyhead and Hillary supporters call Obama supporters cultists, it’s going to be exactly the same thing as 1968, when they had to nominate someone with zero delegates on short notice because the presumptive nominee GOT SHOT DEAD JUST BEFORE THE CONVENTION.
Riiiight.
I don’t understand why people like Hewitt think that Bobby Kennedy GETTING SHOT DEAD JUST BEFORE THE CONVENTION is nothing special. And that some candidate’s supporters dragging out Ye Olde Fainting Couch is exactly the same.
Riiiiiight.
Stat of the day: Hillary got almost as many votes in MD as all GOP candidates put together in MD, and still lost big.