Schneider is right. The Bush administration was a national disaster.

Republicans to claim the wind is at their backs

But didn't Kilroy in Ohio break their momentum?

says CNN Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider.

This is the guy who used to have the "political play of the day (or week)" but only if he could find a Republican worthy of the title. It has been a long time now.

Mike Duncan can't take your call right now. He's looking for a minority person to join a country club with him.

Mike Duncan can't take your call right now. He's looking for a minority person to join a country club with him.

"Hopefully, someone will tell RNC Chairman Mike Duncan about this."
I hope NOBODY tells him. Let them keep thinking like that. It has served them so well in the past two elections.

a majority have an unfavorable opinion of the Republican Party.

Pish tosh! Everyone knows that anybody with an unfavorable opinion of the GOP is Out Of The Mainstream.

Republicans to claim the wind is at their backs

Perhaps they're using 'wind' in an archaic sense of the word, as a reference to a particular bodily function.

President-elect Obama will come out of the Gov. Blagojevich thing looking pretty good, too, since the Gov. is on tape basically complaining that Obama won't play ball with him. I didn't vote for him, but I do have to credit his political instincts.

The CNN poll found that six in 10 Americans have a favorable view of the Democratic Party, while a majority have an unfavorable opinion of the Republican Party.

Hopefully, someone will tell RNC Chairman Mike Duncan about this.
—Steve Benen

Nah. Don't be a spoilsport. Why go and spoil the surprise he'll have when somebody clues him in?

If the Bush administration was a "national disaster," why are people so excited about a transition team that is clearly signaling four more years of the same?

Mayhap yon signals seem not so clear as you proclaim?

fourmoreyears - Are you Ralph Nader?

I hope someone will tell RNC Chairman Mike Duncan about this.

Fixed it for you.

Hopefully, someone will tell RNC Chairman Mike Duncan about this.

Why disabuse him of his delusional notions? If he thinks that all is well and good about the Party and people still love them and it's still a "center-right nation", they're not likely to make the needed changes to become competitive again.

Looking forward to significant Democratic victories in 2010, 2012, 2014...

The Bush administration was a national disaster.

Only a national one? You're too kind.

Quoth Bill Schneider: "To many Americans, the Bush Administration was a national disaster."

geor3ge rejoined: "Only a national one?"

Indeed.

For the tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians who were murdered, and the millions who were impoverished and displaced, by George W. Bush's war of unprovoked aggression against Iraq, based on sickening lies, for corrupt purposes of private financial gain for his cronies and financial backers, the Bush Administration was certainly more than a mere "national" disaster for the USA.

And most importantly, the Cheney-Bush administration's eight years of deceit and stonewalling on the issue of anthropogenic global warming, to protect the monstrously huge profits of their cronies and financial backers in the fossil fuel industries, was a planetary disaster that will almost certainly cause the deaths of hundreds of millions of human beings in the coming decades -- not to mention mass extinctions of species and long-term degradation of the capacity of the Earth to support life.

The corrupt Cheney-Bush policies of deceit and inaction on global warming constitute the most hideous crime against humanity -- and indeed, the most hideous crime against all life on the planet -- ever perpetrated. All of the most heinous crimes of the 20th century's worst dictators combined pale into insignificance by comparison.

SA,

I have to hand it to you, your rhetoric sets the bar very high indeed. Saying that President Bush's "inaction" on "global warming" is the worst "crime against humanity ... ever perpetrated" - wow, stand aside Mao, Pol Pot, Stalin and Hitler, President Bush has exceeded your crimes by the pantload! Wow! Whodda thunk it?

I'm with SA. There are no words too strong to describe the crimes of Bush/Cheney.

My only regret, given the furor over the coming inauguration of President BO, is that Bush/Cheney will be able to sneak away under the cover of darkness.

In anything approaching a sane, rational world that would not be allowed to happen.

...79% of Americans approve of the job Barack Obama has done so far.
I didn't know he started yet.

I didn't know he started yet.

Actually, since Bush has effectively decided to go AWOL at a time of great national crisis (this seems to be a life-long habit of his, doesn't it?) I'd say that Obama already has. Even before the inaguaration he's been moving to put an economic team and plan into place, and the market is responding to that promise of future competence and stability.

For the tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians who were murdered, and the millions who were impoverished and displaced, by George W. Bush's war of unprovoked aggression against Iraq,

Try approximately one million murdered. The most accurate count of Iraqi dead at this point is probably one million.

Stefan and SA: I sincerely hope that President-elect Obama follows your lead and instructs the DOJ to investigate, indict and prosecute Bush, Cheney, and all of the administration and military officials who helped them prosecute the war. What a great way to turn over a new leaf and lead the country into the new, post-partisan millenium; throw the old guys in jail! What a concept - as your term of office expires and you lose your lease on Air Force One, you get free room and board at a federal pen. Brilliant!

The CNN poll found that six in 10 Americans have a favorable view of the Democratic Party, while a majority have an unfavorable opinion of the Republican Party.

This doesn't say as much as it seems to.

The poll result for one question, which is described as a ratio, is compared to the poll result for a different question, which is described only as a 'majority' (50%+1 - 100%) for one side.

Too many unknowns for this to be much use. Apples to apples would be preferable.

That wind the Republicans feel at their backs is the vacuum created by their utter lack of leadership over the last few years. Winning a couple of races that you were supposed to win anyway is not a momentum shift.