Is it just me, or are the Republicans still flailing around, nearly two weeks after a pretty decisive election victory by President Obama and his Democratic allies?
It's been more than a week and a half and we continue to hear another excuse, day after day.
Were they really all that stunned because...all those polls showing Romney losing ended up correctly showing that Romney was losing?
First, they blamed Hurricane Sandy. Then, they needed to throw a bone to Hispanics by suggesting the possibility of supporting the DREAM Act. Then, it was all FOX News and Carl Rove's fault, for not telling them the truth. Then it was because, well, President Obama and the Democrats were mean and allegedly lied about Mittch-A-Sketch Romney being a tool of the filthy rich. And then it was because Romney ran out of money (that was an actual theory by some-see the attached: http://www.dailykos.com/... )
Then it was all Rush Limbaugh's fault (according to Mr. Lamebrain himself). And then Mittch-A-Sketch Romney, in his usual exhibition of brilliance when it comes to demonstrating his pulse of the American electorate, decided that the President gave a lot of things to people that made them like him (you know...like policies that they actually support, for instance).
And then...well lets just secede, everyone. Or, how about impeachment? And now..well how about another try at turning Benghazi into a major national scandal (because that worked so well the first couple of times they tried it)?
Is it just me, or are the Republicans still flailing around like a boatload of fish just released from the fishing nets?
In fact, they seem so distracted by all of their own flailing around from one thing to another to try to make sense out of everything, they appear to have accidentally begun bending on negotiations over the so-called "fiscal cliff" in the process. You can just see them saying, "yes, yes...go ahead," on that front, while their brains are still frantically spinning around and around trying to get a grasp on things.
Am not exactly sure what this all means.
But there are a couple of things that Republican'ts are not talking about.
Usually, after recent Republican election defeats, like clockwork, they would trot out the same dusty old talking points (much like they seem to trot out the same dusty old party platforms and positions every four years, positions dating back to...the 1800's ...with new language to make them sound all pretty and modern and creating the appearance of being "new and improved.")
You know, excuses such as needing to "more effectively communicate" their message or that their candidate wasn't conservative enough (those are their two standard post-election-defeat mantras).
However, unlike other recent elections when Republicans were on the short end of the stick, we don't seem to be hearing much about poor messaging or the need for their candidate to be more of a conservative true believer this time. Isn't that odd?
None of the usual doubling down on their whacky conservatism by claiming they just have to communicate their whacky ideas more effectively (maybe they're actually coming around to realizing what everyone else already knows: that their policies suck big-time and there's not enough lipstick in the world to dress it up to make it palatable? Nahhhh...that couldn't possibly happen in the sure-fire world of the GOP, could it?)
Maybe they are simply still so dumbfounded that they aren't able to come up with anything that sounds remotely plausible...even to themselves.
It's almost like listening to a child who has discovered something they did went terribly terribly wrong, and all that child can do is to utter to themself "...but...but...but..." That's what the Republicans are beginning to sound like. And with each passing day, it's sounding more and more incoherent than the day before.
Am not exactly sure what it all means, yet, but John Boehner was standing there at a press conference with one of the remaining Black Republican members of the House of Representatives prominently positioned behind him, as if as a prop, to imply...."see, see...we've got some of that diversity stuff, too," in the Republican Party's usual awkward, ham-handed, unconvincing way.
Viscerally, they must get it, but their brains seem incapable of absorbing it all. Can they actually be that stupid not to realize that all of that hating on gays, on the Hispanics, on the Blacks, on the young folks, on women, on those with less than a million dollars in their bank accounts well...that it simply can't go on if they are serious about wanting to win elections in the future?
Even they, standing there with gunpowder on their faces from the obvious vestiges of all the backfiring of their very own policies, must realize, at least theoretically, if not down in their stomachs and in their hearts, that all of that hatred, including the irrational personal animosity against the President himself...hasn't seemed to have done them all that much good.
Is it possible? Possible that the Republicans might actually be learning something? Are they actually capable of such a thing?
Nahhhhhhh. No way. (Right?)
(P.S. Of course, there are still those in the Republican Party insisting it wasn't their policies and positions that are the problem, but the way that they tried to "sell it" that was the problem, as noted in this other dailykos diary:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
And, of course, the whole notion that Republicans think their job is to "sell" something to the American public rather than actually propose solutions the public finds acceptable...could also be an ongoing part of their problem with...chronic tin-earedness.
But, regardless of what the Republicans cited by the Wall Street Journal say, however, there's still one huge difference between this year's post-election commentary by Republicans and other post-election years when they've lost: they are not in lockstep as a party as they once were and appear to be flailing around ferociously trying to convince themselves of the unconvincible.)
Update: Even as we speak, Carl Rove continues to flail about, with his mouth flapping incoherently. His latest excuse, according to a new diary that just showed up: it was those "butt-ugly" Republican primaries that did in Mittch-A-Sketch Romney's campaign. Here's the link: http://www.dailykos.com/...
(Wait a minute or two, and we're sure to see ever more creative campaign "post-mortems," no doubt.)