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Political Hay

(Page 2 of 2)

Disregarding this slender margin in the polls, and seemingly undaunted by Obama's inability to finish off Clinton until the final stage of the Democratic primaries, Team Obama now appears convinced that the general election campaign will be a triumphant march to victory.

Obama's handlers will send him jaunting off to Europe next week, heedless of whether this could feed the perception of their candidate as an arrogant elitist. And the brain trust at Team Obama has airily dismissed criticism of their plan for an open-air rally for 70,000-plus at Denver's Mile-High Stadium during the Democratic National Convention next month.

The sense of Obama's inevitability that has contributed so much to Republican despair might actually be inducing the kind of hubris among Democrats that so often has been their undoing. Skeptics who recall that Mike Dukakis held a 17-point lead in July 1988 evidently have no influence at Hope HQ.

RECALLING THE HAPLESS Bush 41 presidency that was the disastrous denouement of Dukakis's defeat, disaffected conservatives no doubt will ask, "What's the point of electing an ideologically unsound Republican president who is almost certain to further damage the GOP 'brand'?"

A fair question, and it's hard to summon a positive argument in response. But the purely negative argument -- the potential benefit of dealing the Democrats their third consecutive presidential loss -- is not entirely without merit.

Among other things, beating a supposedly unbeatable Obama despite the lackluster qualities of the Republican nominee would be a testimony to the latent power of the conservative movement. And it's hard not to smile when contemplating the Democrats' probable reaction to another defeat.

After their bitter disappointment over the 2000 Gore-Bush showdown in Florida, and their rage over the "Swiftboating" of Kerry in 2004, Democrats would descend into a state of political apoplexy if the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy snookered them a third time.

You think "Bush Derangement Syndrome" is bad? John McCain might become the first president to face impeachment on Inauguration Day. (Dennis Kucinich could easily whip up a 47-point indictment between Nov. 4 and Jan. 20.)

Granted, there's no civic virtue in electing a Republican president purely for the pleasure of crushing the hopes of liberals. But wouldn't it be fun?

topics:
John McCain, Hillary Clinton