A telling message

It's probably true that those hoping to revive the Republican Party don't have much to go on but wishful thinking. But Gerry Nicholls' spin is particularly amusing considering how the Republicans themselves handled last night's response speech.

While most of the commentary on Bobby Jindal's speech has revolved around the Kenneth comparison, take a look at what's missing from the transcript. Jindal mentioned the name "Obama" only once - and in the following sentence:

In all these areas, Republicans want to work with President Obama.

And from there Jindal went back to criticizing "Democratic leaders" generally before getting into the rest of his anti-government rant.

Now, given Obama's sky-high approval ratings it's understandable that the Republicans think they have a better chance of making short-term headway by trying to place the spotlight elsewhere. But as long as the party in general and 2012 contenders like Jindal in particular think they're best off not laying a glove on the most visible Democratic politician in the country, the odds of Obama facing a serious threat from either party in 2012 would look fairly remote.