What's Cookin'?

Some interesting advice from a few experienced GOP operatives, delivered via Charlie Cook. First, Cook makes a good point: right now, the situation is out of the GOP's hands. Obama is going to be the prime mover of politics for the next couple months:

If he makes more than a few strategic or tactical miscues, his honeymoon will be abbreviated and Republicans will have the opportunity to bounce back from two consecutive disastrous elections. If the Obama administration does well, things obviously won't look so good for the GOP.

The legendary Dean Smith was fond of citing a book called "The Power of Helplessness." Oxymoronic, yes, but that doesn't make it wrong. For now the best course of action for Republicans would be to keep their heads down. Give Obama his honeymoon. It's what the voters want; nothing's going to be gained by hammering Obama day-in-day-out.

Now on to those recommendations. The whole thing's well worth reading, but a few things stand out. One: we can't chalk the loss up to "Bush and the economy, end of story." Yes, the two Ws--Dubya and Wall Street--played a big part in the GOP's loss. More than that, though, was the appeal of "change." Change was what won this for Obama, and McCain's failure to embrace change was what sent him down to defeat.

Further notes:

This goes to the long-term trend of Republican losses in the suburbs. This is a trend that has been more than 20 years in the making and seems to be moving from the Northeast in a westerly direction. It's no longer just New Jersey and the Philly suburbs, but also the Denver suburbs, Maricopa County, Clark County, Orange County, etc. To me, the core reason we're losing them is that, as Republicans, we're not promising to fix the problems they're concerned about, including health care, education and retirement.

Now, I haven't read Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam's "Grand New Party" yet, but I understand this is what they're all about. People want an activist government, but not LBJ-style Great Society activism. They want a kinder, gentler sort of activism, one that guarantees them a piece of the good life. The government won't throw away trillions on grand social engineering projects. Instead, it makes life easier for everybody, particularly if that everybody happens to live in the middle class.

I tend to agree. But has the economic crisis changed things? To call the government's actions over the past few months "activist" is a criminal understatement. There's a reason people are starting to toss around the word "socialism" more and more. In a crisis like this, I think a succesful Republican Party needs to do more than appeal to middle-class concerns about home ownership and healthcare.

The GOP needs a BIG IDEA. The capitals should give you a sense of how big this idea needs to be. But what is it? That's what we're still searching for. And if I find it I'll be sure to let you know, dear reader. Or readers, hopefully.