In 1977’s Looking For Mr. Goodbar, Diane Keaton tries to save her pathetic, tawdry life. In 2008, Republicans seek a Mr.Goodbar to save their inchoate, desperate party.
Panicked, the GOP fears a next-year tsunami. Thus, Tennessee’s Fred Thomas will likely soon become a candidate: glib, rightist, and ex-U.S. Senator, now television’s Law and Order good-guy, tough-guy face.
To many, Thompson seems a conservative “messiah,” says columnist Robert Novak. They should count to 10, take a breath, then exhale. Any 2008 Republican nominee will have to explain President Bush’s Reverse Midas Touch: Whatever W. touches, he destroys.
Bush’s Iraq calamity scents of Murphy’s Law. Bias sears our Mid-East credibility. Virtually every Nation thinks less of America than pre-2001. W.’s foreign policy spokesman should be Pogo: “We have met the enemy, and he is us.” Given Bush’s record, Thompson would have to defend the indefensible.
W. has never had to work a day, fret a bill, or sweat a mortgage, swelling the gulf between the upper- and middle-class. Arrested on disorderly conduct and drunk driving, he bares contempt for law: e.g. “comprehensive immigration reform” — illegal amnesty. Does Thompson back Bush terming law-abiders “vigilantes, nativists, and Xenophobes”? Fiction’s district attorney will have to say.
A book by ex-aide David Kuo shows W. deriding evangelicals, without whom Bush would be back in Crawford cutting wood. He mocks “the white boy thing”: betrays issues like gay marriage that elected him; and ignores cultural decline, religion’s place in public life, and melting v. fractured pot. ”On [social] issue after issue,” writes John Leo, “Bush has sided with [fellow] elites v. Middle America.” Would Thompson? Whatever W. touches, he destroys.
Bush has careened one from one debacle to another: Medicare, Social Security, Katrina, Walter Reed, now Alberto Gonzalez. A Marist poll shows America deeming W. our runaway worst post-war President. Last year Bush’s leprosy cost Republicans Congress. His approval rating sticks in the 30s. In first quarter 2007, Democrat would-be Presidents outraised the GOP’s for the first time since – well, ever. For 2008, they hold a 20-point generic edge.
Novak dubs Bush “the most isolated President from his party I have ever seen” in 50 years as a reporter. Fellow conservative David Brooks calls conservative “hatred [of him] palpable.” Liberals can’t wait to repudiate W. Nominated, Thompson’s plight would be that many GOPers already have. Like Banquo’s, Bush’s Ghost shrouds each GOP hopeful. Consider:
In 2000, John McCain loathed W. The Iraq toady now pays for his once-rival’s sins. Bush damns anti-Islam bias but ignores elites’ assault on Christianity. Mormon Mitt Romney pays for W. being politically correct. Rudolph Giuliani ties leftist ideology, bizarre private life, and third wife whom he says will meet – the Cabinet! The New York Daily News says the U.S. Embassy in Argentina asked Jenna and Barbara Bush to leave the country after a recent “nude hotel romp.” (I can see Rudy’s slogan: “If you like the Bush Twins, you’ll love the Giulianis.”) Whatever W. touches, he destroys.
For the GOP, what a vision must exist in Thompson, saving it from a Presidency not even a mother could love (unless she’s Barbara Bush). I like and respect him, having written Bush pere in 2000 urging that fils name Thompson Vice-President. He is, sadly, not a magic potion for Republican malaise.
The Tennessean is bright, marquee, and TV-savvy. Bush, however, has cost lives, maimed the GOP, and demoralized its base. Thompson’s mission, should he choose to accept it, will be to overcome how a careless, cavalier, more Mr. Badbar than Goodbar President has poisoned the term Republican.
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