RSI scoops Novak

Today, Robert Novak reports on the "gloom and doom" among Republican politicos who worry that the unpopularity of Bush's surge will make 2008 even worse than 2006 from their perspective.

But RSI arrived at the landslide first. Over the last month, I've posted on the landslide theme here, here, and most recently here. According to Evans, Republican pessimism stems from the realization that the Maliki government is never going to clamp down on the Shiite militias and death squads. In the real world that Republicans don't recognize, the surge would be even more destabilizing if Maliki or the U. S. military were to confront the Shiite militias and death squads. Still, the likely failure of the surge will turn the Republican presidential nominee into the 21st century version of Walter Mondale and drag down the rest of the ticket with him.

Interesting enough, liberal bloggers like Matthew Yglesias and Kevin Drum of the Washington Monthly are relatively suspicious of the landshide possibilities. As is the case with most liberal observers, years of weak Democratic leadership have conditioned Yglesias and Drum to doubt that the Democrats could take full advantage of Republican weakness. To the contrary, I suspect that the Democrats will have an embarrassment of riches in 2008. They'll be able to choose between two very capable candidates in Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama even though they could run a potted plant and still win.