For most of the last week, Wondermom's resignation has been a hot topic on the internet, with substantial typing devoted to the issue of what it all means. One analysis I thought was interesting was this one by Rick Perlstein at Newsweek, dealing with the schism in the Republican party between its intellectual elite and its support base, which nobody would call intellectual.
The latter years of W's administration established approximate dimensions of the hardcore dead-end social conservative crowd. They were the ones sticking with W long after everyone else had moved on, presumably because they were too dumb to realize they'd been wrong about him or too vain to admit it. They kept W's job approval rating hovering between 25 and 30 percent while I kept waiting to see if he would finally zero out.
It's been noted by astute observers that Palin is basically W, Version 2.0. She has most of the same deficiencies, and appeals to the same people who supported W for eight years and probably still wish term limits hadn't forced him into the shadows.
There are signs the natural constituency for conservatives like W and Palin may be a diminishing demographic segment, thus the battle within the GOP between the smart Republicans who want to retool and seek new directions and the rest, who believe the only problem is that Palin wasn't the head of their ticket in 2008.
America is the land of A.D.D. (Attention Deficit Disorder). Short attention spans have become a regular epidemic, like obesity, and Americans are too impatient to wait things out. Obama is at a disadvantage as he wades through the mess W left behind; it'll probably take a long time to get the economy back on track, meaning the political pendulum may swing back in the Republican direction in 2010 and 2012. That's what I expect, and it's why I'm watching the current struggle. If Palin sinks into the obscurity from which she rose, it will indicate things are moving in the right direction.
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