Quote of the Day: David Frum on McCain-Palin

By Michael J.W. Stickings

In tomorrow's WaPo (but posted today), former Bush speechwriter David Frum argues that the Palinization of the McCain presidential run, while igniting the base, has badly backfired:

There are many ways to lose a presidential election. John McCain is losing in a way that threatens to take the entire Republican Party down with him.

The race is basically over: "The very same campaign strategy that has belatedly mobilized the Republican core has alienated and offended the great national middle, which was the only place where the 2008 election could have been won." And as McCain is losing, so are Republicans down the ballot.

And so, Frum recommends, "[w]e need a message change that frankly acknowledges that the Democrats are probably going to win the White House," a strategy that shifts the focus:

In these last days before the vote, Republicans need to face some strategic realities. Our resources are limited, and our message is failing. We cannot fight on all fronts. We are cannibalizing races that we must win and probably can win in order to help a national campaign that is almost certainly lost. In these final 10 days, our goal should be: senators first.

Is that a good strategy? Maybe, but it may be too late regardless.

If the Republicans lose badly next month, up and down the ballot, it won't just be because of the Palinization of McCain, it will be because they are an extremist party that has been wrong about pretty much everything: Iraq, taxes, health care, social security, market (de)regulation, terrorism, etc. In embracing social conservative (on domestic policy), neoconservative (on foreign policy), and neo-liberal (on economic policy) positions, they have drifted further and further to the right while the rest of the country has, overall, been moving to the Democrats. The American people have had enough. The result could be a decisive Obama victory and significantly bigger majorities for the Democrats on both ends of Capitol Hill.

What Frum is doing is playing the blame game, and pointing a finger directly at the McCain campaign. But there is more than enough blame to go around, and Frum should look no further than his former boss. What he doesn't seem to understand, or doesn't want to admit, is that his entire party is about to reap what it has sown.