April Fool’s Day joke? Sadly not. I don’t know what it is that keeps America behind our new young President, but much of it has to do with how badly the handwringing far right has dominated the conservative movement’s message. And this domination is simply repulsing, not attracting, America. Obama’s poll numbers have shrunk a bit, and there are months of bad economic times to yet get through, but Obama still has tons of political capitol and the GOP is getting no where with their cries of pending doom & gloom from liberal policies.

Prime example: the NY-20 special election that happened yesterday. It is an illuminating and damning example of how badly the GOP screwed up its brand since it turned on President Bush. NY-20 should have been a cake walk for a rising GOP capitalizing on a waning Obama because of the lopsided voter registration edge the GOP has in that district:

Democrats nationally treated the election as at least a moral victory Tuesday night because Murphy performed so well in the traditionally Republican District that has an edge of 75,000 registered voters.

The current race is 65 votes apart and will be decided by absentee ballots – which could pull this race out for the GOP. But will be a Pyrrhic victory. But pulleaze – a 75,000 voter edge and these yahoos have a 65 vote deficit? With the good chance Norm Coleman (centrist conservative, recently an ex-Democrat) will lose his Senate seat to loud mouth Al Franken the message is clear: even liberal clowns can beat the GOP brand right now.

This should not be happening, but it is. The current crop of conservative spokespeople and leaders (from Newt to Fred, from Laura to Hannity to Levin) are giving voice to an ever impotent minority. They can bring huge crowds of true believers to book signings, but they cannot bring supporters to the polls.

The problem is obvious. The far right is still waging its purity wars, still railing against their natural moderate conservative allies who are the only option for a governing coalition. The far right are the ones exaggerating and seeing the end of times in every word Obama utters. They cannot recognize Obama’s actions and decisions that actually they would support. They cannot be serious and mature, instead they simply act out a far right version of Begala and Carver.

And don’t take it just from me. There are many others who are tired of the current crop of leaders, hoisted by the mad crowds of the far right to lead this debacle. For example, David Horowitz:

I have been watching an interesting phenomenon on the Right, which is beginning to cause me concern. I am referring to the over-the-top hysteria in response to the first months in office of our new president, which distinctly reminds me of the “Bush Is Hitler” crowd on the Left. 

Speaking of this crowd, have you seen any “I am so sorry” postings from that quarter as Obama continues and even escalates the former president’s war policy in Afghanistan and attempts to consolidate his military occupation of Iraq? 

Conservatives, please. Let’s not duplicate the manias of the Left as we figure out how to deal with Mr. Obama. He is not exactly the anti-Christ, although a disturbing number of people on the Right are convinced he is. 

Horowitz was/is a huge Bush supporter and reasoned voice on Iraq and the Surge. He (like me, I would argue) has earned the right to not only be a solid conservative voice, but to also challenge anyone within the old conservative governing coalition on any subject without the other person going bezerk and making the ridiculous claim he is (or I am) a traitor or quisling. Especially when the differences arise because we/I KNOW their policy ideas suck and would destroy the party and its governing coalition – which they did. History has now made that judgement clear.

Here is another example, Mark Mckinnon:

This is where there is a huge disconnect between Washington and the rest of the country. Most people I know are not highly partisan. Most are fairly centrist, a little left or a little right, but not on the fringe. And increasingly, they don’t feel like they have a representative voice anymore.

…

I know how to drive activity on a blog post. Simply say anything in defense of George W. Bush. And I mean anything. The haters come out of the woodwork. Or, for that matter, say anything laudatory about Barack Obama. Same thing. Doesn’t matter. It is simply unacceptable anymore to suggest that our public servants may actually be doing, if not a pretty good job, at least the best they could be doing under the current circumstances.

It’s simply impossible to have any moderate political discourse. Impossible to put forth an argument and not instantly have your motives questioned. It’s not OK just to be on the wrong side of an issue—you have to be bad, misguided, ill-informed. Blame it on the evolutionary Darwinism of the media. Blame it on redistricting. Blame it on anything, but it’s hard to deny.

This is not a small or isolated phenomena. The far right is stomping all over a good message. That message is Obama and the liberal dems in DC are going down a path of fiscal disaster. But when people who cannot express themselves without vacuous hyperbole pull out the Nazi card and pictures, the message that Obama and the Dems are making a serious mistake gets lost by the offense and insult that is hurled at the Obama voters who might vote GOP some day. If the GOP would stop looking like a bunch of loons and was offering reasoned and rational options they could start to convince Obama voters their choice failed them (not that they are idiots for choosing Obama).

Here is the bottom line – so far:

Two-thirds of Americans approve of the way Obama is handling the country’s top job, and six in 10 give him good marks on issue No. 1, the flagging economy. Those figures are little changed from last month. But he receives lower marks for dealing with the federal budget deficit after submitting a plan that would see continued huge deficits over the next decade. Fifty-two percent back Obama on his approach to the deficit, with the public split about evenly over whether belt-tightening or big increases in spending should be used to try to improve the economy.

How is this possible? The message is clear and you would think even an idiot DC pol could deliver it. Here is one part of the message on how the dems in DC are screwing up:

Should a bridge that would connect two campuses at Microsoft’s headquarters be funded with $11 million from the federal stimulus package?

Critics of using stimulus money for the bridge say it would give the software giant a break on a pet project. They also say it serves as a warning sign of how some stimulus money is not being used to finance new projects but is being diverted to public works already under way.

Bill Gates is worth $44 billion dollars personally. He could buy 4000 of these damn bridges and yet it us poor taxpayers footing the bill? This is one of $trillions of dollars of wasteful spending now ripping money away from the average Americans – who cannot afford this. There are endless examples like this one to trot out in front of America.  All any politician would have to do is promise to go through and strip out any non-emergency or critical projects and make sure the money stayed with the middle class – using this as an example – to gain traction. But no, the conservatives are crying Nazi and Socialist and End of The World! 

Bunch of frigging drama queens. America needs better solutions not melodrama. Here’s another part of the message not getting out:

It was nearly two weeks ago that the House of Representatives, acting in a near-frenzy after the disclosure of bonuses paid to executives of AIG, passed a bill that would impose a 90 percent retroactive tax on those bonuses. Despite the overwhelming 328-93 vote, support for the measure began to collapse almost immediately. Within days, the Obama White House backed away from it, as did the Senate Democratic leadership. The bill stalled, and the populist storm that spawned it seemed to pass.But now, in a little-noticed move, the House Financial Services Committee, led by chairman Barney Frank, has approved a measure that would, in some key ways, go beyond the most draconian features of the original AIG bill. The new legislation, the “Pay for Performance Act of 2009,” would impose government controls on the pay of all employees — not just top executives — of companies that have received a capital investment from the U.S. government. It would, like the tax measure, be retroactive, changing the terms of compensation agreements already in place. And it would give Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner extraordinary power to determine the pay of thousands of employees of American companies.

This is a perfect opportunity to be the protector of average Americans. Just note how draconian DC was with CEOs and others they themselves admit they needed to fix our current economic problems. What makes anyone think DC would not start removing ‘dead wood’ or ‘unproductive’ or ‘over paid’ workers to show they are doing something? Barney Frank, Pelosi, Reid and others are on witch hunts to distract America from realizing they caused this mess!

All I know is if the current crisis was being addressed correctly, without insulting or repulsing Obama voters, Obama and the Dems would be in serious trouble. The fact that this has not happened and that the message is sound can mean only one thing – its time to shoot the messengers.