Holding Out For A Hero

While Rudy Giuliani may have won the all-important Dennis Miller primary (I thought Hollywood was supposed to stay out of politics), the rank and file in the Republican Party is worried as hell.

After years of political dominance, Republican voters now view their party as divided and say they are not satisfied with the choice of candidates seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

In a survey that brought to life the party’s anxieties about keeping the White House, Republicans said they were concerned that their party had drifted from the principles of Ronald Reagan, its most popular figure of the past 50 years.

Forty percent of Republicans said they expected Democrats to take control of the White House next year, compared with 46 percent who said they believed a Republican would win. Just 12 percent of Democrats said they thought the opposing party would win the White House [...]

While nearly 6 in 10 Democratic voters in the poll said they were satisfied with the candidates now in the race for their party’s nomination, nearly 6 in 10 Republicans said they wanted more choices. Yet the poll found that a substantial number of Republicans did not know enough about their leading contenders — Senator John McCain of Arizona; Rudolph W. Giuliani, former mayor of New York; and Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts — to offer an opinion of them.

“I think the Republican candidate has not appeared yet,” said Richard Gerrish, 69, a Republican from Greenacres, Fla. “The ones we have now will run out of steam. Someone will come along later that will do better.”

The Republicans are in a tough spot. Most of them don't think Rudy McRomney are sufficiently crazy enough for their tastes (how dare Mitt say he wouldn't have saved Terri Schiavo!), but they intuitively know that the real crazies in the race have no shot at winning a general election. They want a stealth candidate who's really crazy but doesn't let it show too much. In essence, they want George Bush circa 1999-2000 again. That's why they're holding out for a hero. Fred Thompson? Chuck Hagel? Newt Gingrich? Robert Kagan? Some computer generated compassionate conservative XQV-3000 model?

Meanwhile, 500 people show up in Oakland on a Sunday just to plan a rally for Barack Obama. And John Edwards gets out in front of every major story, this time being the first candidate to call on Abu "I Didn't Know" Gonzales to resign. He's also kicking ass in Iowa by meeting people and keeping his organization rock-solid. Richardson and Dodd have fine résumés. Even Hillary wouldn't be SO bad... well, OK, maybe scratch that.

Over here, we're fine with our candidates. The Republicans are looking for an oracle. I like where we stand.