With the close of President Obama's first year in office and the passage of health care reform a virtual certainty (pending House-Senate negotiations), Republicans are already flailing, tying themselves up in knots while trying to find a line of attack that will stick:
A sampling of the seriously twisted logic and history from this Sunday's Republican talkers:
- Bush inherited 9/11 from Clinton (Mary Matalin)
- Since the taking office, Pres. Obama has refused to work with Republicans (Newt Gingrich)
- Republicans have been right to oppose Pres. Obama, but they have been bipartisan anyway (William Kristol), though every single one of them opposes health care (Mitch McConnell)
- Politically, health care reform is going to be the best thing the GOP could have dreamed of (Matthew Dowd)
- Republicans need to have a positive alternative vision (Newt Gingrich) and should run on repealing health care reform (Newt Gingrich)
- The health care reform bill is a monstrosity that we Republicans tried to kill (McConnell) but I won't say whether we'll run on repealing it (McConnell)
- Health care reform is unconstitutional (DeMint) but I won't commit to filing a lawsuit against it if it passes (DeMint)
To do well in 2010, Democrats still have got an awful lot of work to do, but politically speaking they are beneficiaries of the biggest gift of all: an opposition party that just doesn't have its act together, that isn't ready for prime time, and doesn't offer a serious alternative. If Democrats avoid the election year timidity trap and instead deliver on their key campaign promises, 2010 could end up being a better year for them -- and the country -- than anybody imagines.