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Where's all the punditry about GOP's need to downplay right-wing positions?

November 04, 2009 12:25 pm ET by Jamison Foser

It seems whenever Democrats win an election, the media rushes to insist that they did it by running to the middle and not being "traditional Democrats."  Just this week, Washington Post reporter Perry Bacon reminded us, "The candidates Democrats recruited in 2006 and 2008 are pro-life and pro-gun." (In fact, very few were pro-life.)  

Some creative conservative media figures even insisted that Barack Obama won election in 2008 by running as a "Reaganite" and "fiscal conservative."

So I turned on my television a few hours ago, fully to hear cable news talkers saying that yes, Republicans won last night, but they did so by running to the center and downplaying traditional Republican positions.  After all, just yesterday, Washington Post reporter Ben Pershing said during an online Q&A:

If there is a national lesson from today, it's that Republicans all over the country will be looking to replicate McDonnell's model -- play up jobs and economic issues, and play down social issues (with the general audience, at least. You can still let conservative activists know you're on their side.)

Indeed, during the campaign, McDonnell distanced himself from his own previous anti-gay writings.  And in the NY-23 congressional election, Republicans rallied 'round the most conservative candidate they could find (even abandoning their own nominee in the process) and promptly lost the seat for the first time in about 150 years.

But, oddly, I haven't seen anyone -- not even on the supposedly-liberal MSNBC -- saying that last night proves that Republicans need to moderate themselves if they're going to win.  Weird.

Tags: The Washington Post, MSNBC, L. Brent Bozell, Ben Pershing

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    • Author by wzwriter (November 04, 2009 2:17 pm ET)
         
      But, oddly, I haven't seen anyone -- not even on the supposedly-liberal MSNBC -- saying that last night proves that Republicans need to moderate themselves if they're going to win.

      Because everyoine knows that the GOP is either unable or unwilling to moderate itself. Which will result in it going the way of the Whig Party from which it evolved. Within the next few election cycles - I'm looking for Michael Steele to be the last RNC Chairman......
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    • Author by mattcable250650 (November 04, 2009 10:00 pm ET)
         
      I suppose Democrats are fortunate to be avoiding the Finland problem. In the Winter of 1940, Joseph Stalin decided that he'd copy his good buddy Der Fuhrer and do a blitzkrieg just like he did, targeting Finland. Finland didn't win the following war, but it conducted a much, much tougher defense than Stalin was expecting it to conduct. Stalin immediately set about reforming and reorganizing the Red Army, demoting hundreds of officers and promoting hundreds more to take their place. By the time Der Fuhrer initiated Operation Barbarossa by attacking the Red Army in Poland, Soviet forces were much better prepared than they otherwise would have been. Of course, once again, the defenders lost anyway, but still...
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