That Nightmare Ticket
Lee on Feb 04 2008 at 1:19 am | Filed under: Around the Web
Sadly, Mike Huckabee remains in the race in order to distort it. One has to wonder if the increasingly paranoid crypto-theocrat’s gambit to become McCain’s Vice Presidential nominee succeeds, how substantially will it depress mainstream conservative turnout? I’d say pretty significantly, as this is a concord between the liberal + soc-con wings of the party (although there’s now several points of commonality). Even were 66% of the GOP to be very happy about the ticket (that’s stretching their numbers substantially), that would still equal a devastating defeat to an almost certain Clinton/Obama ticket which will naturally command well over 90% approval from invigorated Democrats. You need maximum GOP turnout to have any chance of beating that Democratic ticket and McCain/Huckabee will not get it for you.
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If the Republicans are going to lose anyway, this might be the best way for it to happen. If Republicans are to be competitive in the future, the social-cons will need to be put in their place, and a Dukakis or Mondale style defeat just might do it.
That always seems to make sense, Peter. Just let them get wiped out and then say “see, this is what you get for being fanatical loons.” The sensible people can then walk in and pick up the pieces. But historically, losing elections don’t seem to destroy insurgency movements in the parties. Consider the massive defeats of both Barry Goldwater and George McGovern. One would think this would have utterly destroyed both the New Right and New Left’s ambitions to dominate their respective parties. But paradoxically, it actually strengthened and solidified their holds over the parties.
This was my great fear in Huckabee winning the nomination. While he’s been shut out of that, he and his movement would probably be well positioned to take over from the VP slot.
[...] disappointed with the emerging results in the GOP primaries too (the Nightmare Ticket is near), but I’m actually starting to worry about Mr. Hewitt: “McCain can’t be [...]
Lee!
I had to think about your comment a while, and yes, both sides tend to move in the direction of the other whenever they lose. But with the nightmare ticket, is there really any space on their left in which to move? The democrats have the same problem; if they move any more to the right of Bill Clinton they’ll be republicans. That’s why I do the third party schtick. For the last couple of presidential elections the two major parties have been colliding in the political center. I have no idea what is ultimately going to happen.