NYT guest op-ed writer predicted GOP edge, offers Democrats advice

[ProSense]

Despite Election Results, Edsall Still Sees 'Red'

Thomas B. Edsall, replacing John Tierney this month on The New York Times' op-ed page, follows up his ill-timed book, which had predicted hard times for Democrats on the campaign trial, by forecasting more trouble ahead for the party. With his track record, the 2008 elections may be in the bag for the Democrats.

By Greg Mitchell

(November 25, 2006) -- When John Tierney was finally ceremoniously booted off The New York Times’ op-ed page, there was some hope that his guest replacement this month, Thomas B. Edsall, after a distinguished career at The Washington Post, would provide thoughtful commentary in that unliberal column slot.

So what does he do on Saturday? He offers advice to the Democrats on how they can avoid certain disaster for the party and stop trudging along as “No.2.” He also predicts that liberalism is “dead” and “rigor mortis” will soon set in, and the party as a whole must undergo a “painful transformation.” This comes on the heels of the Democrats’ national triumph, and it comes from a man who in his recent book was prescient enough to write, "The Republican Party holds a set of advantages, some substantial and some marginal,” meaning that "the odds are that the Republican Party will continue to maintain, over the long run, a thin but durable margin of victory."

Whoops.

Talk about bad timing. Just weeks after the release of Edsall’s book, the GOP lost that predicted edge in the House, the Senate, statehouses around the country, and governorships. It’s amazing they still kept their majority at FoxNews. The leader of their party now sits in the White House with a 31% approval rating. Yet here is Edsall, the ace prognosticator, dispensing wisdom to Democrats.

The title of his book, by the way, is “Building Red America.” The last I looked the building boom had gone bust for the Republicans, and Red America had turned pink or blue except in the Deep South and the Great Plains.

But Edsall has been wrong before. In 1991, a year before the Clinton victory, he wrote in his book, “Chain Reaction,” that the Democratic Party was “in danger of losing its stature as a major competitor in national politics.”

Edsall was so eager to sell his new book that he appeared recently on rightwing radio host Hugh Hewitt's program, where he admitted that the mainstream media has an "overwhelmingly" strong liberal bias -- making the job for his former colleagues in the industry so much easier -- and estimated that Democrats outnumber Republicans in newsrooms by 15 or 25 to 1. This margin is not sustained by a single survey, even the slanted ones frequently cited by Hewitt and has brethren.

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[TomClash]

1. He has the perfect name for an Old Republican

His writing is both tedious and horrible.:puke:

[benddem]

2. unfortunately

the "Edsall" isn't a guest he was hired to replace Tierney. No improvement there.

[nam78_two]

3. Wow! This article has one piece of news that makes me very happy

Thas ass Tierney got booted out...YAY! Since NYT went Select haven't been able to read the opeds but that actually initially made me thankful cause barring Krugman and Herbert, I find all their oped columnists annoying.

But Tierney was one of the worst-I SO glad they gave that libertarian moron the boot...
HAH-that was a short tenure! :rofl:

[madfloridian]

4. MyDD and Kos wrote about this

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/11/25/121555/12

in no uncertain terms.

[Cha]

5. I guess the "majority" isn't

the "Culture" of Corruption.

"In the book, Edsall continually mocks the Democrats’ “elitist” ways, declares that its candidates' attempts to portray themselves as “populists” will surely fail, and suggests the Republicans will probably "stay" in charge because they are culturally in tune with the majority of voters: "Traditional values of family, neighborhood, church, school, and the workplace are, to millions of voters, 'money in the bank' -- they are what holds people together, providing security against a rainy day."

Well, how has that worked out lately?"

My newly elected Democratic Congressman, Michael Arcuri, stated what real family values are in his Victory Speech and what Americans really care about..i.e. "affordable health care for all, affordable education, getting out of Iraq, and NOT privatizing Social Security".

[CTyankee]

6. What an embarassment for the NYT! They have lost their minds

to put that guy in for Tierney, who was a loser in his own way.

The NYT is SO living in the past. What were they thinking? Maybe now, after the election, they have sobered up?

I think Mr. Edsall's days are numbered...