Voters' Hunger for Change Threatens Republican Dream of Eternal Power

[babylonsister]

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0219-03.htm

Published on Monday, February 19, 2007 by the Guardian / UK

Voters' Hunger for Change Threatens Republican Dream of Eternal Power
As anti-Bush sentiment grows, pollsters fear party has lost will to govern

by Ewen MacAskill and Suzanne Goldenberg


Republican strategists fear that an increasingly anti-Bush and war-weary American public could deny the party the White House in 2008, frustrating the grand design of the party's political mastermind Karl Rove for a permanent majority.

"I believe Republicans are in a more dangerous position than at any time since 1974," said Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster and commentator. "Back then you had Watergate. You had economic recession, a military collapse in Vietnam and had civil unrest. All those same ingredients are present today."

Mr Luntz said his own polling and focus group research in the first two states in the primary process - Iowa and New Hampshire - had persuaded him that most Americans are hungry for a change. That desire, he believes, is unlikely to be met by the Republican candidates for 2008. "The Republican party seems to have lost the will to govern," he said.

Among the frontrunners, John McCain, the 70-year-old Vietnam war veteran, Arizona senator and maverick, is viewed by some as too old. Mr McCain could also be hurt by his strong support for a troops increase in Iraq, and his recent courtship of evangelical leaders whom he once denounced as "agents of intolerance".

While the former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani has been climbing in the polls since he declared his candidacy last week, the hero of the September 11 attacks has limited appeal to the social conservatives who are the bedrock of the party. The thrice-married mayor will have to perform his own ideological contortions to win over conservative Republicans who see him as too liberal on abortion, gay rights and stem cell research.

Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts who also made a formal announcement last week, hopes to capitalise on his can-do reputation as the successful chief executive officer who saved the Salt Lake City Olympics from scandal and financial ruin. But there are questions over whether the Christian right is prepared to back a Mormon, whose religion many of them regard as little more than a cult, and there is suspicion about whether his switch from a liberal position on social issues is genuine or tactical.

Against the Democratic star power of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, all three frontrunners and a second tier of largely conservative candidates have left some of the party faithful cold. "They all suck," wrote Erick Erickson on his Republican blog, RedState.

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[rolandking]

1. Power

Eternal power? Um....the Dems held power a whole lot longer then the GOP could ever hope for.