The View From Here . . .

By Bob Morgan, Jr.

Whither the Republican party? There has been a sharp debate in recent days.

One possible direction would be to move the party a bit to the left. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a leading proponent of this approach who backed Barack Obama in the past election, declared this week on CBS' Face the Nation that "the Republican Party is losing north, south, east, west; men, woman, white, blacks and Hispanics. I think the Republican Party has to take a hard look at itself and decide: What kind of party are we?"

The obvious problem with Mr. Powell's approach is that it limits the Republicans' ability to differentiate themselves from the Democrats. As National Review writer Jim Geraghty notes about the Face the Nation interview, "The Powell vision, to the extent he articulated, it was 'sharing the wealth', 'close Guantánamo and 'be inclusive.' And as Mr. Geraghty notes, "Other than a mild criticism of Obama for pledging to close Guantánamo Bay before having a plan on how to do it, [Powell] doesn't really spell out anything he would do different from the current Democratic administration." If Republicans are perceived as "me too," "Democrat-lite" imitators, voters can be forgiven if they simply choose the real Democrats. I strongly suspect that most Republicans would regard two other recent aspirants (at least in the media) to be voice of the party, Rush Limbaugh or Dick Cheney, as more authentic than Mr. Powell.

On the other end of the spectrum, however, are the purist Republicans. Numerous bloggers and commentators on conservative websites routinely and unfairly deride as RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) Republican officeholders who may be solid party loyalists on almost every issue, but off the reservation on a single hot button topic (immigration is a prime example). Similarly, the label may be applied to a moderate Republicans able to hold a district or state where Republicans are significantly outnumbered by appealing to independent voters. The RINO labeling makes the perfect the enemy of the good. Winning elections and gaining majorities in legislative chambers have real world consequences, even if every issue does not go the conservative way.

Another point is worth mentioning. While the Republicans certainly can use some new faces, the party is by no means in desperate shape. The 2008 presidential margin for President Obama, a charismatic candidate, was just 53-46 percent, in spite of a financial collapse in September, an unpopular Republican incumbent, a controversial war and, perhaps most important, a huge financial advantage for the Democrats in key states. Looking ahead to 2010, the Rasmussen weekly survey of likely voters has 40 percent of respondents planning to vote for their district's Democratic candidate while 39 percent plan to vote for the Republican. This razor thin margin could indicate significant Republican pickups in the off-year elections. As the debate over closing the Guantánamo base indicated, Republicans may also be regaining their traditional advantage on national security issues.

So, while it's not the best of times for the GOP, the party has every possibility of a rebound, and a reasonably quick one at that. Neither turning the party into a pale imitation of the Democrats nor insisting on complete ideological purity is a necessary or helpful solution to the Republicans' present standing.