A GOP Defeat, Actually

A triple defeat.

That is, any rational person would view what happened Tuesday as a defeat.

To most Americans the GOP was, well, defeated. At least at the state level. This despite its control of the federal government. This, despite all the campaigning the president did for local GOP candidates. It was a rout. Not a victory in any sense. It looked like a duck, it quacked like a duck. It walked like a duck.

It was a defeat.

Lost were the governorships of Virginia and New Jersey. Lost (at least in part) was the gubernatorial effectiveness of Arnold Schwarzenegger  in California. Tuesday also  put into question his  future plans (if any) to run for a second term.

Let’s face it. Schwarzenegger was sandbagged. His attempt to bust the public employee unions failed. His attempt to grab power by turning redistricting over to a triumvirate of unelected judges failed. His attempt to weaken the political clout of the teachers by extending their probationary periods  failed. His attempt to grab what amounts to legislative power over the appropriations process  failed.

A defeat for all, except of course to the ideologues of the far right. To some on the far right, what happened Tuesday was somehow or another a potential victory.

Predictably the far right viewed the GOP’s triple defeat in California, Virginia and New Jersey as somehow a victory.

Yes, that’s right, a victory.

A good example of this kind of wishful thinking (defeat actually will bring victory) is a piece by John J. Pitney, Jr. of Claremont McKenna College. Writing in the National Review On Line the other day, he stated  that the defeat of Schwarzenegger's  initiatives shouldn't be interpreted as a mandate for a “liberal” agenda. When I questioned how the governor's  defeats could be interpreted as a "victory", he wrote back  explaining that everyone thought Ronald Reagan was a sure loser when he first tried to run for the GOP nomination for president.   Reagan then went on to become president.  Same with Schwarzenegger. 

Fat chance.

Schwarzenegger  has no place to go. He’s unpopular now as governor and it is unlikely he will get any more popular as time goes one. And he cannot run for president, as Reagan could. Therefore, what real good is he to the GOP?

Not much.

The GOP will simply have to accept their defeats, and stop trying to call them victories.  By doing otherwise, the GOP and their allies in the media are simply practicing  Orwellian Doublespeak!

Punditwalla--