HBO's splendid movie,"Game Change," tells the story of Sarah Palin's rise and fall as
John McCain's running mate in the 2008 presidential contest. It provides insight into the GOP's identity
crisis that's produced this year's demolition derby in the Republican
primaries.
Game Change asserts that Palin was a desperate choice by the
McCain campaign. Because they needed a
dynamic vice-presidential candidate to stop Barack Obama's momentum, McCain and
his advisers rushed the process and did not adequately vet Palin. Then they discovered Palin had little
knowledge of current events, much less foreign and domestic policy. At first they kept her isolated from the
press and attempted to tutor her. When
that didn't work, and she gave several disastrous interviews, they had her
memorize a script and emphasized Palin's singular talent: "She's the best
actress in American politics."
None of this is particularly new information to the
political cognoscenti -- although the story is amplified by Julianne Moore's
unerring portrayal of Palin. It
illustrates the GOP has a fundamental flaw -- an identity crisis -- and the only
way they can cover it up is to have an actor be their Presidential candidate.
Consider the Republican candidates of the last 30 years:
Ronald Regan -- an actor and two-term president; George H.W. Bush -- not an actor
and a one-term president who lost his reelection bid to actor Bill Clinton; Bob
Dole -- not an actor and an unsuccessful candidate; George W. Bush -- an actor
and two-term president; and John McCain -- not an actor.
Republicans must recruit an actor to be their Presidential
candidate because, at the national level, they have a near impossible task: unifying
their diverse base and appealing to Independents. Republicans must nominate a candidate who is
an actor, who projects different images to different voting blocs. That was true of Reagan -- voters didn't
particularly like his policies but they loved the man. That was true of George W. Bush --
conservatives believed he was one of them, while Independents believed that he
was outside the political mainstream: "a uniter, not a divider."
"Game Change" reminds us that McCain started his presidential
campaign with two enormous problems: Republican social conservatives didn't
trust him and he wasn't an actor -- he didn't have the ability to enthrall
diverse groups. The selection of Palin
as his VP running mate made sense because she immediately captured the hearts
of social conservatives and she was an actor -- for an instant she appeared to capture
the hearts of Independents.
NEW YORKER correspondent Ryan Lizza recently pointed out the obvious, the Republican base
has become more conservative. The good
news for the GOP is that their "intense policy demanders" are energized; the
bad news is that their involvement means Republicans have moved farther away from
the American mainstream. To win at the national
level, the GOP needs an actor to both unify their base and bring in Independents. At the moment, they don't have one.
Romney is favored to win the Republican nomination but he's
not an actor. He's unlikely to unify the
GOP and also attract Independents.
That's the political reality that Republican Party leaders will struggle
with. They have four alternatives:
A second alternative would be to plan for a deadlocked
convention and convince someone, an actor, to rise from the Republican ashes
and become the nominee. In this context,
Jeb Bush is frequently mentioned.
A third alternative would be for the GOP to accept Romney as
the nominee and force him to accept a social-conservative VP running mate who
is also an actor -- this season's Sarah Palin.
That might be Michele Bachmann.
A fourth alternative would for Republicans to muddle through
their convention, nominate a ticket such as Romney and Chris Christie, Governor
of New Jersey, and plan to defeat President Obama by suppressing the Democratic vote. Republicans would try to throw the election
into the Electoral College and win the presidency by subverting the vote in swing
states.
Because of their ideological identity crisis, Republicans
have a rough road ahead.