Put on a Happy Face
BARNES, FRED
Put on a Happy Face The Republican challenge. BY FRED BARNES Republicans have a big problem. Nope, it’s not fi guring out how to rebuild their party after consecutive defeats in...
...Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has already done some of this...
...Republicans shouldn’t follow the Clinton model...
...He’s the star...
...This is especially true in Obama’s case since he’s our first AfricanAmerican president...
...The other reason: It’s the biggest step in overcoming America’s racial past since the Civil Rights movement...
...There are five areas in which Republicans need to be as smart, coolheaded, and disciplined as Obama was during the campaign, and may continue to be as president-elect and president...
...That means their opposition to popular liberal bills, like funding for child health care, should be low-key and never obstreperous...
...He’ll look like the true adult in Washington...
...We haven’t done that...
...Republicans don’t need to jettison conservative principles...
...Blame Game...
...They’ll have public sentiment on their side...
...He’s going to have one, big time...
...But there’s Obama...
...Routinely complaining about Obama’s selection of a White House staff and cabinet will come off as small-minded and petty...
...If they attract attention, it’s likely to be because they’ve done something the media consider outrageous or dumb...
...To gain a majority in Congress, Republicans will have to win House and Senate seats in those places...
...This is one way to get press attention, but there’s a political price...
...They should do this relentlessly...
...Hardly...
...For the time being anyway, he’s a colossus astride the continent, the most commanding political presence since Ronald Reagan arrived in Washington...
...The most egregious parts of the liberal agenda are unforced errors all by themselves: comcard check, the Fairness Doctrine, the Freedom of Choice Act removing all limits on abortion on demand, tax hikes and spending excesses, reimposing the ban on offshore drilling for oil and gas, and much, much more...
...One more thing is essential, according to Ryan...
...The media love it when Republicans attack Republicans—because it makes Republicans look bad...
...Nope, it’s not fi guring out how to rebuild their party after consecutive defeats in national elections (that’s easy...
...Later in the week, she proposed two costly “stimulus” bills with no Republican input...
...Fred Barnes is executive editor of THE WEEKLY STANDARD...
...Republican Patience...
...In the Northeast, across the upper Midwest, and in cities and upscale suburbs...
...This reinforced the idea that her loss was deserved...
...As the honeymoon drags on, Republicans may grow weary of the hero worship, but there’s nothing they can do to change it...
...Republican Cooperation...
...Democrats will bring these up early next year, and they’ll attract some Republican support...
...Republican Weakness...
...Americans have a genuine sense of pride in this breakthrough for two reasons...
...Nor is it fi nding new leaders in Congress (also easy) or latching onto fresh ideas that might improve the Republican brand (easiest of all...
...For starters, Republicans should recognize their position in relation to Obama...
...Throwing around blame will only strengthen Obama’s hand...
...BY FRED BARNES Republicans have a big problem...
...With their reduced numbers Republicans won’t be able to force Obama to commit errors...
...Where is it...
...The idea is to hold their fire until Democrats unleash the liberal agenda on Congress...
...Every voter in America must be aware of this promise...
...McConnell and his House counterparts know perfectly well there’s little chance of actually reaching agreement on small issues and no chance at all on big ones...
...We’ve got to be happy warriors,” he says...
...Democrats will operate “in a strong bipartisan way with civility in our debate and fi scal responsibility in our budgeting,” she added assuringly...
...The smarter tactic, given the inevitability of an extravagant Obama coronation, is to grin and bear it...
...Americans desperately want to feel good about a new president even if they didn’t vote for him...
...It’s the tricky business of dealing with President Barack Obama...
...Does anyone think better of the McCain campaign now that unnamed aides are leaking nasty stories about Sarah Palin...
...After Hillary Clinton lost the Democratic nomination to Obama, her top advisers began attacking each other...
...This is a trait rarely found in politicians, much less in Republican politicians...
...Republicans are extras...
...Republicans shouldn’t indulge in recriminations...
...They’re hopelessly partisan...
...Still, offering alternatives to Democratic legislation is wise...
...Ryan, the party’s most innovative thinker, says Republicans need only apply these principles to the new political era, and moderates will be comfortable with the result...
...For sheer hypocrisy, Republican happy talk about cooperation doesn’t come close to that of House speaker Nancy Pelosi...
...There’s a good bit of fakery involved...
...The Obama Honeymoon...
...The problem is simpler— but also more diffi cult—than those...
...Otherwise, Republicans will play right into Obama’s hands...
...Republicans ought to hold him to it...
...Republicans in Washington must keep these voters—they’re more moderate than conservative—in mind and avoid alienating them...
...But unforced errors will come soon enough...
...Republicans will look high-minded...
...But it’s a virtue that can make Republicans look calm and responsible...
...To win the presidency, they’ll have to appeal to voters in those locations...
...The country must be governed from the middle,” she declared last week...
...The temptation to zing Obama should be resisted...
...When Pelosi and Reid balk, Republicans should call on Obama to redeem his promise...
...His most popular promise, in speech after speech, has been to unify the country and begin a new era of bipartisanship in Washington...
...Obama mentions one of them frequently...
...For now, congressional Republicans need to emphasize their eagerness to forge bipartisan compromises with Democrats...
...Republicans can forget about Pelosi and Senate majority leader Harry Reid...
...It will probably linger into the early months of his presidency...
...It’s “only in America” that a black man, a member of a minority group, could be elected leader of the country...
...I suspect a solid majority of Republican and conservative voters feel this way at the moment...
...We have to propose a radically different pathway,” says Republican representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin...
...We’ve got to stop being the angry white guy party...
Vol. 14 • November 2008 • No. 9
