The Discerning Texan

Don Surber shows us how bad it is getting inside the Democrat Party:

The Democratic Party begins eating its own.

How do you bring a country together when your party is falling apart?

The No. 3 House Democrat James Clyburn of South Carolina (via Talk Left): “I heard something, the first time yesterday (in South Carolina), and I heard it on the (House) floor today, which is telling me there are African Americans who have reached the decision that the Clintons know that she can’t win this. But they’re hell-bound to make it impossible for Obama to win.”

Supporter of Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton, Taylor Marsh, on House Speaker Democrat Nancy Pelosi: “I’ve supported Pelosi through all of her tenure, proud to have the first woman Speaker of the House. But recently she simply sounds like The Queen Political Bee intent on keeping any other female from hogging her spotlight. Her performance on Larry King Live was embarrassing. It reminds me of high school when the top cheerleader is about to be deposed by someone who can do a better jump. Truly beneath what I’d expect of a woman of this stature in the 21st century. Unless women get past this nonsense we’re doomed.”

The voice of reason? Paul Krugman!

No, I’m serious. Check it out:

But the message that Democrats are ready to continue and build on a grand tradition doesn’t mesh well with claims to be bringing a “new politics” and rhetoric that places blame for our current state equally on both parties.

And unless Democrats can get past this self-inflicted state of confusion, there’s a very good chance that they’ll snatch defeat from the jaws of victory this fall.

It’s all a plot to lull popcorn-munching Republicans to sleep.

Pass the popcorn anyway.

I am an Orville Redenbacher man myself... but how can one possibly sleep when one is having so much fun?

"Defeat from the jaws of victory" -- hell Krugman might as well be describing McCain's "suck up" performance in New Orleans yesterday, or else his dust up over the Reverand Wright ad in NC... Neither are exactly going to motivate the Conservative base to turn out in the fall. It is telling about the state of chaos at the DNC that the Republicans are basically running a Democrat-lite as their Presidential candidate, yet the Democrat candidates are so pathetic that this Copperhead Republican will probably win. Still, if McCain turns in too many more performances like yesterday, he may be the one snatching defeat from victory--good grief, John: how about knowing when to put a sock in that pie hole of yours? Sun Tzu said something famous about never going about destroying your enemy when he is in the process of destroying himself; I think we need a corollary to that: never destroy yourself when your enemy is destroying himself...

It is going to be a very bumpy ride. Buckle up.

UPDATE: Some more advice for the McCain camp from the WSJ:

...it isn't going to be sufficient for Senator McCain to simply tout [keeping the Bush] tax cuts without offering a strong rationale. The standard trap the left sets whenever tax cuts are mooted is to wave the "deficit" that will result. Absent a counterargument, Mr. McCain will spend the campaign playing on this liberal ground. In particular, he has to make the case that tax cuts do not lose as much revenue as the static, dollar-for-dollar revenuers claim. He has tax-cut history on his side. The threats of revenue catastrophe did not happen in the 1960s (the Kennedy tax cuts), the 1980s (Reagan) or after 2003 (Bush). ...

Senator McCain has to find a way to make the case that his economic plan and its attendant tax cuts are intended to spur economic growth. So much the better if he doesn't feel personally comfortable making that argument in the sort of dry terms his economic advisers might favor.

Growth is the product of work performed by a huge nation of individuals seeking to support families, small businesses and communities. Virtually everyone understands that the nation only thrives if people are able to invest their money and labor and then reinvest it in more of the same. They will only do that, at every income level, if the government consents to allowing most of the fruits of this effort to remain with individuals in the private economy.

Senator McCain doesn't need a doctorate in economics to understand this debate. As a Member of Congress and Presidential candidate, he has listened endlessly to Democrats mau-mau their opponents with rhetoric about "fairness" and the "deficit" and, best of all, the "investment needs" of the government, aka, spending.

The past week's criticisms are intended to bait Mr. McCain into debating his tax cuts on these liberal terms. He can only win this debate, and the election, by breaking free of that mindset and making his own personal case for lower taxes and the prosperity they help to create.

It is hard to see McCain going there; but if he doesn't he's going to lose me.

It is a great illustration of the problem for any Republican taking a Democrat position: at the end of any Democrat argument lies Marx, Class Warfare, anti-Business, anti-Judeo-Christian (and no other) religion, Peace and Appeasement at all costs... mentality. Cheap emotionalism and "peace/love/green" sentiment that has much more to do with expoliting guilt than it has basis in fact or logic.

This is why McCain trying to sound like a Democrat is so monumentally stupid: no matter what, it will always lead to something that cannot be defended using pure reason. And this is a trap the Dems are just waiting for him to wander into. The WSJ is very astute in pointing out this weakness--but it doesn't just apply to economics. If McCain really wants to run as an independent than he needs to be independent...of pop culture, leftist, feel good Groupthink in general.

Does he have it in him? We'll see.