Me vs. Joe Trippi in 2006
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Blogging, Democrats, History, RepublicansWe both made predictions about how 2008 would shape up back in February 2006, and I think this post could serve as an interesting juxtaposition of inside the beltway thinking vs. outside the beltway thinking.
First uber-tech blogger Robert Scoble shared Trippi’s thoughts…
In the 2008 election he expects that Hillary Clinton will be a lockin for the Democrats. He doesn’t see anyone who can challenge her from the Democratic side.On the right side he’s expecting a far more conservative than even George Bush is. Why? His reasoning is that the powerbase that put George Bush in power is mad that they haven’t gotten things done, for instance, repealing of abortion and other conservative issues. He doesn’t think that a moderate Republican has any chance in getting nominated at all.
If that weren’t bad enough, he theorized that a Democrat would split ranks and run as an independent. He isn’t sure how this would play out, but it probably wouldn’t be good for Hillary, who’ll have a tough time getting elected anyway.
To find out how I felt things would shape up, click here.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, Blogging, Democrats, History, Republicans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
May 27th, 2008 at 10:24 am
I so stayed out of 2008 predictions in 2006, on general principle, save to predict the GOP House/Senate losses and a Lieberman win. Two-plus years is a veritable lifetime in politics. Nice calls, Justin.
Trippi had an exaggerated sense of the power of the far right, a common mistake among rabid partisans.
May 27th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
Trippi’s biggest mistake is thinking the power of the republican party (note, not the majority or even a large group cares more about principles than power.
Someone far more conservative than even George Bush because the powerbase is mad that they haven’t gotten things done (abortion, gay marriage amendment, flag burning, etc).
The GOP has no interest–NONE–is resolving these issues because this is the carrot that keeps the far right in line. Resolve these issues and the GOP loses the impassioned voters it desperately needs to retain power.
It has been and always will be about the money and power with the people running the GOP–they simply use the far right to achieve their ends.
The GOP has accomplished a lot in the past tow and a half decades–they have reduced the size and power of the middle class, decimated the social programs that assisted the lower classes from moving up, and created a corporate paradise that enriches those who are already rich.
A vast majority of dems have been either complacent or complicit in this effort, sadly.
The end result is a growing disparity between the halves and the have nots.
Now–do not misunderstand me–I do not begrudge the wealthy their wealth–hell, I want everyone to be wealthy or have a chance for it. With a few exceptions, I do not believe this has been a conscious effort on the part of the wealthy and powerful to shut out the middle and lower classes. Instead, I think this has been a short-sighted, short-term greed to “get all we can while we can” and the unintended consequence is the mess we have now.
The people running the GOP have no social conscience, no moral compass, and could care less about the long term, best interest of this country. Everything they do is about improving the bottom line from the last quarter to this quarter.
May 27th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
“haves and have nots”–boy, I wish there was an edit feature
May 27th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Apparently Joe Trippi wasn’t the only DC insider who bought into the “Hillary can’t lose” meme.