This video<\/a> shows embattled lawmaker Bob Inglis (R-SC) urging his audience to turn off the TV when right-wing talk show host Glenn Beck comes on. <\/p>\n“I’m afraid of Obama!” a woman cries. <\/p>\n
“Why are you afraid?” Rep. Inglis replies, prompting howls. Of Glenn Beck, Inglis says, “He’s trading on fear.”<\/p>\n
“If you want to lead, stop being fearful,” he adds, but the crowd shouts him down.<\/p>\n
Inglis has a point, but he also has it backwards. <\/p>\n
The GOP has a big opportunity right now. A lot of Americans are dubious about the Obama Administration’s plan to run up historic new deficits.<\/p>\n
New doubts are also emerging about President Obama’s ability to manage the economy and high unemployment.<\/p>\n
But Americans won’t vote for a political movement led by talk show hosts and symbolized by shouting mobs. <\/p>\n
They won’t support politicians who wink at conspiracy theorists.<\/p>\n
Democrats learned this painful lesson in 1968 when activists disrupted the convention in Chicago.<\/p>\n
That debacle ushered in the era of Nixon, which quickly gave way to the era of Reagan.<\/p>\n
The problem with Inglis’ crowd isn’t that they’re fearful, it’s that they’re frightening. <\/p>\n
Unless centrist Republicans demand that their leadership rein in the increasingly nutty wing of their party, a political opening will be missed.<\/p>\n
So here’s my prediction: <\/p>\n
If Republicans knock off the silliness and if unemployment remains high next year, the GOP will pick up 2-4 Senate seats.<\/p>\n
But if the birthers and the Beckites and the ditto-heads are still the vanguard and the public face of the GOP, Republicans will lose half a dozen Senate seats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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