Joe Duffy (JoeDuffy.net)
Many years ago I was a two-time executive board member of
the North Fulton (GA) Young Republicans.
I’m no longer young. As I got
older, I preferred to describe my political beliefs aligned more with
conservative ideology than any political party.
As I transitioned into a middle aged Republican, my eyes
were opened to the fact that both parties are guilty of putting partisan needs
ahead of the country’s well being.
I preferred to align myself with ideals. When my choice
lost, rather than proving I was smarter than those who voted for the winning
candidate, I judged the elected official on performance and not which letter is
in parenthesis after his or her name. Conversely, when my chad hung for the
right person, blind defense of such elected official could not enter the
equation.
So there you have my leanings on the table, but I honestly
believe I’ve always had a political slant, yet never a bias.
I generally have been pretty accurate predicting the
outcome of elections, my rooting interests never shading me.
Most observers were shocked at the last major election. The
Republican Party became the first since Franklin Roosevelt to win both the
White House and gain seats in both houses while already holding a majority.
Mind you, I can’t say I have the political handicapping
skills to match my sports prognostication abilities, but I foresaw the
Democrats losing the last elections much more so than the Republicans “winning”.
Their Presidential frontrunner Howard Dean and lead attack
dog Tom Daschle rallied the far left but alienated the center—the
undecided—with melodramatic, Chicken Little, sky-is-falling rhetoric.
Dean plummeted quickly in his party’s own primaries and
Daschle, once unbeatable is now a private citizen thanks to a contingency that
tired of their refusal to keep the debate honest. George Soros,
and Air
cheered the venom and histrionics, while the undecided gave more power to an
unpopular majority party.
Republicans clearly, two years later, are hell bent on
returning the favor. The right wing counterparts to MoveOn.org, Al Franken and
the incorrigibles have commandeered the party. Republican insurgents such as Jerry Falwell, Anne Coulter, and Michael Savage may feel
invigorated by their party’s Gambling Prohibition. But every survey I have ever
seen says that rank and file Americans believe in the right to bet five bucks
on how many points will be scored on the Monday Night Football game.
This political handicapper believes—and with a
conservative slant at that—the Republican Party’s insistence on kowtowing the
right-wing fringe is a gamble that will fail miserably.
Joe Duffy is CEO of
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nation’s top handicappers as well as exclusive sports betting information.