A contrast

It’s only one state, and a rather screwy caucus system, I know. But John Cole’s take on Huckabee and what his Iowa win means for the GOP draws a nice contrast to Obama, and what his win might mean for the Democrats:

And it is JUST what the GOP deserves. Look, all you establishment Republicans, I know you weren’t serious about Terri Schiavo. That is why it was so depressing watching you throw the concept of federalism out the window to pander to these guys. But they were deadly serious. The same with all the anti-gay stuff. I know a number of the Republicans I grew up with could not care less about the current ant-gay marriage jihad some want to wage. I know most of my republican friends really aren’t homophobes. But you had to bend over to the religious right, and this was an easy way to get their support. besides, who were the log Cabin Republicans going to vote for anyway? The same with stem cells, abstinence only, etc. Whatever you have to do keep ‘em quiet and keep ‘em voting- you will accept a certain amount of ignorance, religious hokum, and bigotry, just so long as the votes keep coming.

I don’t agree with John, mind you, that the GOP “deserves” whatever it is he’s predicting for them. I think the party, and it’s leadership (primarily the Bush administration, but the party machinery is culpable as well) have made a lot of mistakes over the past seven years, but I won’t indict the party as a whole. A lot of Republicans are just as unhappy as I was with the party, but will never jump ship the way I did. That doesn’t make them wrong, only more resolute than yours truly was able to be.

The contrast though, is striking, isn’t it? With Huckabee, the GOP really would be anointing a leader directly from it’s wingnuttiest fringe. With Obama, you have a candidate who has not only maintained as much distance as possible from his party’s wingnuts, but who has virtually Sista Souljah’d the netroots. That’s a big deal in the wake of the 2006 election, where independents and moderate Republicans flexed their muscles…a candidate like Obama, with none of Clinton or Edwards’ baggage, who has also demonstrated that he’s not beholden to the netroots or the radical left (which, by the way, look at all the ActBlue activity John Edwards, the netroots darling is generating today) can lock up those voters plus non-radical Democrats.

Yeah, Obama is acceptable to a much broader swathe of the electorate than any other candidate running this year. I personally don’t support the guy, but I wouldn’t exactly cry in my beer if he were to be elected.