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- If last year's CPAC set the defiant tone of the GOP for the first year of the Obama administration, this year's National Tea Party Convention will, I think, set the tone for 2010. Moreover, this could be the point at which the Republican party either becomes inseparable from the tea partiers or starts the process of raising the serious possibility of a third party challenge. Between fundraising problems and the chaos at the RNC, it's never looked more likely that a GOP split was in the works, although the usual barriers to third parties still apply, of course.
- I have averred many times on TAPPED that American conservatives axiomatically believe that Americans are fundamentally conservative in temperament, which is to say that they believe the conservative movement reflects the will of the American people. No doubt the three-point jump (just like in Bill Clinton's first year) in self-identified conservatives in this Gallup poll will solidify this belief. But that's the great thing about basing your political beliefs on a temperament, rather than solid policy proposals -- "conservative" can mean many things, and even lead to a lucrative career writing gibberish that your fellow-travelers will lavish with praise.
- Newt Gingrich, whose new big idea is to recycle the same idea he came up with 16 years ago, does get at something interesting in this Fox News interview: "The key to this is to be the alternative party; not the opposition party. To explain how you would replace the failed policies; not just to oppose the failed policies." I would be interested in hearing how the Republican party, responsible for virtually every bad policy of the naughties, intends to explain to voters how enacting those very same policies would be an acceptable alternative to having Democrats in power. The more likely course is for them to remain silent on matters of policy while serving up a healthy dose of Reagan nostalgia.
- Remainders: Sen. Joseph Lieberman, unsurprisingly, is loathed by his constituents; for a Southern, conservative Republican, Lindsey Graham has shown surprising independence on climate change; Charles Lane is a terrible analyst of American politics; the Chicago School of Economics now belongs to the ages; the American Enterprise Institute will surely be excommunicated for advancing the heresy that stimulus spending works; shockingly, the genre of "Eurabia" literature is motivated by good old fashioned bigotry and xenophobia; and why do so many TV meteorologists refuse to believe climate change exists?
--Mori Dinauer
