Republicans deliver again-you're welcome, Hillary and co.*

So I should have written this post eight years ago.  You'll have to take my word that I have been saying this for that long.

Republicans have opted out of presidential election campaigns.  They have systematically abandoned the issues that would have gained them a foothold in the quadrennial process to select the commander-in-chief.  I would even go so far as to say that the Republicans have become the best thing that ever happened to the Democrats.

In 2008, the GOP could have made great strides in promoting their excellent candidate, John McCain.  The Obama campaign was surging based on the excitement around electing an African-American president for the first time.  I admit I was a little moved by that myself.  But BHO was NOT a good candidate.  He was inexperienced, and he associated with very questionable extremists.  The Republicans left these major issues completely alone.  Perhaps they were rising above personal attacks, but lots of people had concerns about these issues and would have welcomed some exposure of the facts.  As people had time to discover Obama's far left ideology, John McCain's poll numbers began to rise, and his campaign took off.  Too little, too late.  Another sixty days of campaigning, I dare say, would have made the difference.  I feel Republican strategists owe McCain a huge apology.  What a waste of his time, energy, and brilliance.

In 2012, the GOP nominated the least appealing candidate since John Kerry.  Even Mitt Romney was not excited about his campaign.  Republicans ho-hummed their way to the polls, waiting for the inevitable.  Dems probably sent flowers to the RNC for their help in turning a losing proposition into an Obama legacy.

But wait, the silver platter was still in the closet!  In 2016, the conservative party self-destructed as we all watched the pop-fizzle on live television.  Hilary Clinton was the mandated Democratic candidate, having suffered a humiliating loss to BHO eight years before.  But she was under fire for several scandals, and Bernie Sanders had the greater appeal to constituents.  HRC called in favors, and the media created a cozy cushion of protection around her.  Republican strategists could have had a field day with this, but were too preoccupied with - the horror- the meteoric rise of Donald Trump's actual campaign,   They were too stunned by his party nomination even to notice the struggle among the Democrats, much less to take advantage of it and grab the momentum for their own side.  Day after day, Democrats watch with concern as Hillary's character gets shakier and shakier.  Day after day, the Republicans save her campaign by their fumbling, bumbling ways.  Do they even know what their platform is?  Are they so bent on self-destruction that they can't form a sentence?

I can't wait for the concession call from Donald to Hillary.  If she will accept his call.  I'll be watching the classic biopic of American politics, aka "The Keystone Cops".

*Disclaimer of personal agenda:  I haven't been a registered party member of either side since the '80s.

postscript March 18, 2017:  well, shut my mouth, Clinton managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  RNC still in disarray, unsalvageable, but now Democratic Party is in the same pitiful condition.  In the immortal words of Richard Pryor portraying someone on LSD, "What's...happening...to...(us)?"

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Susan Sylvester