Pelosi and Reid – Republican Assets?

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid might just be two of the best assets the Republicans have considering the decline of the Democrat’s brand. But don’t take my word for it. Andrew Cline, editorial page editor of the New Hampshire Union Leader, writes in “Pelosi and Reid Blew It“

This election year should have produced a Democratic sweep of historic proportions, delivering the White House and massive majorities in the House and Senate. But thanks to the incompetence of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, Republicans might pull a respectable showing.

It is getting harder and harder to see the duo benefiting Democratic candidates in any significant way. Does that justify pulling a disappearing act till after the election? Voters might disagree with Congress taking a vacation during a crisis especially when Republicans showed a willingness to tough it out in D.C. over the summer. But no doubt the Democratic leadership knows best.

Still if Pelosi and Reid want time in front of the cameras, it’s a safe bet the Republicans will take all the help they can get.

 

Palin and the Democrats’ Gender Dilemna

Wednesday night at RNC08 was an exciting high drama affair that must have given nearly the entire Republican party that old Chris Matthews tingly leg feeling. (Dear Chris, did you get another one though this time out of fear?)

Rudy Giuliani was at his attack-dog best. With both biting humor and the occasional flick of a rapier, Rudy set the stage well for the main event, the (will she or won’t she crash and burn) speech of Governor Sarah Palin.

She delivered the goods so well that even some of the fiercest “in the tank” media looked sick with shock. Governor Palin is the real deal and just might, just might turn the race on it’s ear.

That she can give as good as she gets is now known. But there’s more to winning than being able to take a punch. Does she have, does the party have, the strategy to vanquish the Obama (the messiah)/Biden (the insider) ticket?

Appropriately this quote about Senator Obama came from Governor Palin but it was part of the theme of other speakers most notably Mayor Giuliani.

“This is a man who can give an entire speech about the wars America is fighting and never use the word ‘victory’ except when he’s talking about his own campaign,” she said. “But when the cloud of rhetoric has passed, when the roar of the crowd fades away, when the stadium lights go out, and those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot — what exactly is our opponent’s plan? What does he actually seek to accomplish, after he’s done turning back the waters and healing the planet?”

So now the Republicans have a strategy and a lead attack-dog in Governor Palin flanked by Mayor Giuliani and others.

That the Obama/Biden campaign has a tough road ahead is patent. But what is unclear so far is how they can take up arms against a woman like Governor Palin without looking like misogynistic wife-beaters. Nicolas Sarkozy managed to pull it off against Socialist Ségolène Royal but that was in France and against an opponent who lacked acquaintance with hunter instincts.

Really. What’s a man to do?