I have always felt that the US party system makes it particuarly difficult for the opposition party to flourish. One of the main reasons being that the opposition party has no leader. Who can best fill this vacuum?
GOP have apparently stumbled into a 21st Century solution.
I have often argued that Fox news is in fact more Republican than the Republican party. It was set up by GOP power players. Evidence for this assertion can be found in profiling Fox viewership. By way of example 88% of Fox viewers judged that McCain won the debates. There are plenty of such statistics. Yet more than 12% of Registered Republicans vote for a non GOP candidate. Thus Fox is actually more Republican the the GOP membership.
Now as we sit back and enjoy Fox's decision to destroy Sarah Palin - we must assume that since Fox is an organ of the GOP - that there is always a strategy behind such "journalism".
So who really calls the shots? Rupert Murdoch calls the shots. Murdoch has decided that Palin is not a good enough figurehead for a Vibrant GOP. Murdoch will thus likely decide who the next leader will be.
Murdoch has already proven he likes this type of role. The Sun newspaper is Britains largest selling newspaper. The Sun (a paper for lower income and rather down market tastes and wonderfully exciting "page 3's") backed Margeret Thatcher in 1979 and in 1984. After that it switched sides and supported Tony Blair. They all went on to become Prime Minister. But under the UK system the opposition party elects its own leader and does not need a Rupert Murdoch to assume the role of party leader.
Here in America, it was the New York Post that was credited with effectively having a huge sway as to who was going to be New York Mayor. All candidates must pay homage.
In this 2008 election there had been much speculation that Hillary and Murdoch were allying themselves, with Fox suddenly treating Hillary with more respect.
But in the USA, Murdoch is pretty entrenched with the GOP base, and his business interests are far more likely to grow expotentially under a GOP adminsitration. Thus until the Republicans regain the Presidency, Rupert Murdoch, through Fox news, the Wallstreet Journal, the New York Post, the London Times (he would to love to buy the NY Times)- is the leader of the GOP. The next Republican President will thus be 100% indebted to Rupert Murdoch.
This is Murdochs proven mode of operation. He can not resist. His minions will provide him cover - but he has clearly just become the new leader of the GOP.
An Australian media tycoon now 'owns' the GOP. The Irony. All the false patriotism, the limitless photo opps with US Flags, Flag pins,the God Bless America's, the opportunistic citizenship, (now copied by all the MSM)- it's all an Orwellian strategy to dumb down the Country so that it can run by an Aussie.
Quite brilliant.