Lets be real for a second. Obama was always going to win the Presidency, that's a fact. There was no way McCain could have pulled off a victory after eight years of Bush, his train wreck Campaign and the pick of Sarah Palin as his VP Nom. Some people's focus has now shifted onto how bad McCain will lose and the consequences that could carry with it. Former Bush speech Writer David Frum sums it up best. "A McCain loss is threatening to take down the entire GOP with him"
David Frum isn't alone in his worries. He has been joined by many other prominent conservatives, such as former Reagan speech writer and conservative columnist Peggy Noonan and Conservative Commentator David Brooks. Their criticisms are similar. John McCain's pick of Sarah Palin was a bad idea. Peegy Noonan was caught in an open mic incident on MSNBC with Mike Murphey calling the Sarah Palin pick "Political Bullshit", "Cynical" and "Gimmicky", while David Brooks called Sarah Palin "A Cancer to the Republican Party" in one of his articles. This is a sentiment shared among many intellectual conservatives who have expressed their displeasure with Sarah Palin. Some Republicans, Like Senator Chuck Hagel from Nebraska and four star General Colin Powell, former Reagen security adviser and former Secretary of state under George W. Bush, have openly referenced Palin as a reason why they have jumped ship and joined the Obama team.
The beginnings of the Party split seems to be taking place within the McCain campaign itself. Reports of Infighting among Senior McCain aides and Sarah Palin's associates have spilled into the public domain. McCain aides are charging Palin has gone Rogue and is going off message, such as bringing up the RNC's $150,000 clothing shopping spree controversy that the McCain campaign hoped would be buried soon. She has openly disagreed with many decisions made by the McCain campaign, such as pulling their forces out of the former battle ground state Michigan (now solid for Obama), not being allowed to bring up Barack Obama's former Pastor Jeremiah Wright ( A topic McCain declared off limits) and had criticized the use of robocalls, the exact tactic McCain is using. A McCain aide told CNN that Palin was a "Diva" and that “She does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else. Also, she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party.” Another McCain aide has expressed the same concerns that Palin was not in it to win it, but instead preparing herself to become a party leader and perhaps run for the presidency in 2012. He also criticized her lack of understanding of any of the issues. In response, Palin's staff has accused the McCain campaign of bumbling her entrance onto the national stage and ruining her image and handling her poorly, not letting her be herself, which is why she has gone off message so many times.
The conflict has threatened to take the entire Republican Party into a civil war. Some party elders and insiders have suggested the best was to go from here on out was to focus on saving as many Senate and House seats as they can. While Obama is raking in record amounts of cash, he has been able to tap into the House races as well to help his fellow Democrats. Republicans are worried that in just a week from now, Obama will win the Presidency, Democrats will increase their majority under Nancy Pelosi in the Congress and Harry Reid's senate democrats will reach a filibuster proof majority in the senate, giving Democrats complete control over the government. Jimmy Carter managed to pull off a similar win back in the 70's. McCain has warned that having all three branches of government controlled by Democrats means there are no checks and balances and has called Senator Obama, Senate leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a "Dangerous Threesome", and they have come to be known as the 'Democratic Trifecta'.
If such a loss does occur, the GOP will be pushed out of the political spectrum after dominating it for the past eight years, leading many to bitterness and as expected, the fingers have come out and the blame game has begun. With Aides in the McCain campaign already at each others throats with still a week away before the election, it wont be long until the whole party is wrapped up in what might decide the future of the party. As already noted, many commentators have already expressed their distaste for Sarah Palin and the course the GOP is taking. They have run up against the Republican faithfuls though who have turned almost venomous on their fellow conservatives colleagues.
Jim Nuzzo, a White House aide to the first President Bush, dismissed Mrs Palin's critics as "cocktail party conservatives" who "give aid and comfort to the enemy".
He told The Sunday Telegraph: "There's going to be a bloodbath. A lot of people are going to be excommunicated. David Brooks and David Frum and Peggy Noonan are dead people in the Republican Party. The litmus test will be: where did you stand on Palin?" Rush Limbaugh, the doyen of right wing talk radio hosts, denounced Noonan, Brooks and Frum. Neconservative writer Charles Krauthammer condemned "the rush of wet-fingered conservatives leaping to Barack Obama", while fellow columnist Tony Blankley said that instead of collaborating in heralding Mr Obama's arrival they should be fighting "in a struggle to the political death for the soul of the country".
So the line has been drawn, and on the one side of it you have the 'Egg heads'. They are the intellectuals, who voice criticism of their own party and are seeking a new direction upon seeing the dwindling appeal they have to a new world and have been turned off by Sarah Palin. On the other side you have the 'Ditto Heads', who consist of Party faithfuls, social conservatives and the religious right, the core of the Republican party who have been enticed into the race by Palin.
The Democratic movement which is changing the political and electoral map and has beenc ompared to that of Ronald Reagan, appears to have encouraged soul searching in the GOP to find a new path. It will be a long road for them. The Republican party is about to go through a dark, uncertain period that will determine their direction. The Old way or a New way. Perhaps an Obama victory will not be that bad for the GOP after all.