GOP worries and frets about its pundits

by smkovalinsky | October 22, 2009 at 03:59 pm

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Political operatives of all stripes like to fancy themselves as coolly controlling practitioners — who can shape public images. . . But the reality of the GOP during the Obama presidency is that the party’s image and priorities are in many ways being imposed on Washington — driven by grass-roots energies that lawmakers and strategists can scarcely control. At the same time, there are powerful incentives for Washington politicians to play to the crowd and bow to the influence of commentators like Beck, who at the moment is far more famous than any of the GOP’s congressional leaders.

~POLITICO, 10/22/09

Politico has a piece which speaks of the worries of the GOP in the face of a changing populist landscape which goes in for extremism sometimes diametrically opposed to partisan self-interest:

If pundits like Beck and Limbaugh are in control of grassroots public opinion, then what can moderate candidates do to tap this power without going over the top with wildness which would offend more mainstream sensibilities?

Indeed, many have wondered aloud if the time has come for the once Grand Old Party to cast off the likes of Palin, Hannity, Beck, and Limbaugh. Tapping in, while maintaining the golden mean between the extremes, though, would seem to be the due course:

Many top Republicans are growing worried that the party’s chances for reversing its electoral routs of 2006 and 2008 are being wounded by the flamboyant rhetoric and angry tone of conservative activists and media personalities, according to interviews with GOP officials and operatives.
Congressional leaders talk in private of being boxed in by commentators such as Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh— figures who are wildly popular with the conservative base but wildly controversial among other parts of the electorate, and who have proven records of making life miserable for senators and House members critical of their views or influence.

Some of the leading 2012 candidates are described by operatives as grappling with the same tension. The challenge is to tap into the richest source of energy in the party — the disgust of grass-roots conservative activists with President Barack Obama and their hunger for a full-throated attack on his agenda — without coming off to the broader public as cranky and extreme.

Mitt Romney has purposely kept a lower profile and stuck to speeches on specific policy issues, in part to avoid the early trade-off between placating party activists and appearing presidential. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, one of the most active potential opponents for Obama in 2012, said that media portrayals of a narrow-minded party could make it harder to attract the middle-of-the-road voters needed to make the GOP a majority party again.

“The commentators are part of the coalition, not the whole coalition,” Pawlenty said in a phone interview. “The party needs to be about addition, not subtraction — but not at the expense of watering down its principles.".