Nov 4
Schieffer compares modern GOP to Dems of 1972
By Denise Ross
The growing rift in the Republican Party, highlighted by yesterday’s House election in New York’s District 23, reminds CBS’s Bob Schieffer of the Democrats in 1972 and the presidential defeat of South Dakota’s own George McGovern.
Here’s video from Tuesday’s CBS Evening News, with Schieffer’s comments specific to McGovern transcribed below. (Shieffer begins his analysis at about 3:09, and the McGovern bit starts at about 3:55.)
ANCHOR HARRY SMITH: Does this race tell us trends in terms of how Republicans expect to be running in the future?
BOB SCHIEFFER: In this case, I think it will, Harry, because what have is this third party conservative who literally pushed a moderate Republican out of the race, and she went on to endorse Obama. The Republican Party is really split, and it is the conservatives who seem to have the juice right now. It’s very much like what Democrats went through in 1972. The party activists on the left were so upset with mainstream candidates that in an effort to purify the party, they pushed it so far to the left that they nominated the very liberal George McGovern for president.
Of course the talk post-election is all about whether the two Republican gubernatorial victories reflect negatively on President Obama and whether New York’s House race, won ultimately by the Democrat, reflects negatively on the GOP. No doubt the spin is going in all directions.
I caught a bit of conservative talk radio Wednesday morning and heard jubilation in all cases. First, the governor wins were sweet and, of course, interpreted as a big FU to Obama; second, the NY situation was heralded as a victory because the liberal Republican was driven from the ballot by the conservative Conservative. Nevermind that the Dem won the seat. (This is logic that escapes me, but that’s what I heard. I know you’ve heard it, too, and maybe even share the sentiment.)
I’m not sure I can completely agree with Schieffer, whom I regard as a model newsman. For the Dems in 1972 (and he was there and I was in diapers) it seems that it was only after they suffered the landslide presidential loss that they regrouped. Reverberations can still be heard today with plenty of rebuttals to rants reminding purists that none of what they seek can be had without the power of elected office.
The modern GOP already has lost a presidential bid, and while McCain’s loss wasn’t on the scale of McGovern’s, it was pretty handy. That loss seems only to have emboldened the right-wing purists. Perhaps a bigger loss would be needed to rejoin the feuding GOP family? Or perhaps the pundits who say the Republican Party is all but a lost cause will be proven correct.
And perhaps neither of these scenarios will prove out. Perhaps the conservatives will rise like a Phoenix, and perhaps that rise began this week.
Whatever the outcome, the game is on and it will be a wild ride until 2012. Saddle up.
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i’m no political expert, but i believe the split in the republican party in ny23 was between their leadership and the rank-and-file. scozzafava was hand-picked by the leadership. the conservative rank-and-file didn’t like the pick, so they drafted hoffman, who ran as an independent.
not sure how simply running as a 3rd-party candidate pushes anyone out. seems it was hoffman who was originally pushed out by leadership. what pushed scozzafava out was the polling numbers that showed she was going to lose.
hoffman likely would’ve won that seat if he was the republican pick from the beginning, or even if scozzafava had released her supporters to hoffman, rather than owens. we’ll see in 2010.
It’s still remarkable that that the GOP lost this seat that they held since the Civil War. I agree that it will be a very wild ride between now & next presidential election. I expect most of the blue states will remain blue and most of the red will remain. Look for the purple ones to be black and blue. If the unemployment rate doesn’t show improvement soon, look for a shift in the House, maybe even control. If, however, it does start to improve, watch for potential GOP problems (backlash) if the Palin/Bachman types go into battleground districts.
Poor Stephanie. She’s going to have to grow a spine really, really fast.
I suspect there were so many relatively unique factors involved in the recent elections that neither party nor their apologists can make a case for much of anything in the way of future election outcomes.
There does seem to be come consensus that these results were not good news for incumbents. Throw the bums out may be a growing feeling unless Obama’s change is something more than what jangles against the keys in our pockets.