One of my favorite Republican readers vents:
You have no idea how damaging were Geffen's remarks to Maureen Dowd. Stop being naive about the Democrats. Geffen sits down for an interview with the Poison Pen of the New York Times, - the Democratic Party's answer to Luella Parsons, and you think it just happened?
Read Barone's column of yesterday: Rudy is the Gay Friendly Godzilla who makes Hugh Hewitt smile. It's a hell of a paradox, but this next year is about the Republican Party moving past George Bush and into the future. The reason why the Democrat alarm bells are going off has as much to do with Nancy holding on to marginals in the house and Harry Reid holding on to his job as anything else. If Rudy becomes some very authentic monster candidate, then all these downticket races start getting affected.
Democrats have made an enormously stupid bet about the Republican Party: you can see it in their blogs. They have told each other that we were sure to nominate Elmer Gantry and go to the country with a Bush Clone like George Allen. They have sworn, up and down, that Rudy could not get the nomination. Someone like Kos or Josh Marshall will never, ever get this about us - we are an extremely pragmatic group of people who like to win and aren't willing to lose just because liberal bloggers and the Media say we should lose.
Authenticity vs. inauthenticity. That's the story of 2008. Rudy is real. You can touch and feel the Catholic kid from the Neighborhood. You know that some of his friends died in the Towers. Rudy is real. McCain has sometimes tossed away his authenticity he earned the hard way, and let's face it, he's not in the best of health. Romney is not quite authentic but Lord how he tries.
Hillary is not real. She's inauthentic. There's your story, Andrew. An entire army of front men and pet chihuhuas like Begala or Wolfson cannot alter her inauthenticity one whit: she's poison and there's not a damn thing she can do about it. Your liberal writers are killing her slowly, starting with Dowd, because liberals know their own kind. They are just slow in getting around to pulling the maskie off the droog. More and more liberals, the ones with money and influence and power, are refusing to be conned, or intimidated, by the Clintons one last time.
What no one has the answer to yet is Obama. He's the Mystery Date. The girls all love him; but is he Authentic or is he made up, or is he Condi Lite? So far, count me unimpressed: too many platitudes in the books. We'll find out.
Bush tried to be real. He did. But he blew it with the people and with the center of the country. Rumsfeld killed him. You can only lose that bond once and you never get it back. Rudy is something we haven't had in some time, a chance to return to the promise of Reagan and Goldwater, and a shot at authenticity.
Well, it's a plausible theory. I'd say that Romney is still a formidable candidate once you see past the enormous baggage. He looks and sounds like a president to me. I see the Giuliani appeal, but we have yet to see the full Rudy closet - and neither has the country. Clinton will not go easily, and I have to say I remain more impressed by Obama than my reader. I honestly don't know who I'll be backing in November 2007, let alone 2008. But I intend to spend the next few months, with your help, trying to figure it out.