For The Defense, December 2011 - DRI Today

Tony Blankley—The Politics of Change
in a Crucial American Moment
A special feature during this
year’s DRI Annual Meeting Awards Luncheon
was the presentation by columnist,
TV personality, and radio host,
Tony Blankley, who provided a clear
and witty view of American politics in
real time. Calling on his years as a pundit,
commentator, and party strategist,
he unscrambled the complexities of the
political puzzle and positioned them in
a precise and nuanced way. Mr. Blankley
discussed the current political dynamic
in Washington, D.C., and the forces that
we can expect to drive policy changes in
the foreseeable future.
Mr. Blankley said that he has “a global
sense about what might be happening”
and believes that we’re moving—not only
in the United States, but in Western European
democracies—into a new era of politics.
Since World War II, incumbents
have had the best positions to achieve
election, he explained. With the exception
of President Jimmy Carter’s one
term in the wake of the Watergate scandal,
“we have not had a single time when
one party or the other took control of
the White House and didn’t hold it for
at least eight years.” He said that now, as
he observes not only President Obama’s
approval ratings, but also those of many
European leaders, incumbents will have
difficulty holding voter confidence, given
the state of the world economy. “As long
as these conditions are not satisfactory to
the average, middle- class, Western voter,
it’s not going to be a happy task to be an
incumbent.” He pointed to the dramatic
number of national congressional seats
that have changed parties in recent elections,
and said that this force may drive
the country’s future for a while.
Mr. Blankley said that in recent
years he has dubbed Washington, D.C.,
“the most dangerous city in the world”
because just a handful of people could
make decisions that could shape the
planet. Now, he thinks that Washington
remains “the most dangerous city
in America, because they can’t do anything.
We can’t scratch our noses to save
our lives,” he quipped. “This town is
completely paralyzed and frozen in this
gridlock and struggle of two parties who
are raging at each other.” Mr. Blankley
said that this political climate has
shaken people’s confidence in government
and pointed to startlingly low polling
numbers on consumer confidence as
evidence.
Although current approval numbers
would not seem likely to instill much
optimism in the Obama camp, when
discussing the president’s reelection
chances, Mr. Blankley cautioned that
we cannot know the future, and President
Obama does have some things
on his side—for instance, the Republican
slate. He said that it reminded him
of the old Henny Youngman one liner:
when asked, “How’s your wife?,” Mr.
Youngman would respond, “Compared
to what?” Mr. Blankley said that he looks
at the president and sees this admirable,
highly intelligent, articulate man—
and then he looks at the other side. Of
the Republican candidates, he believes
that Mr. Romney is in a “pretty strong
position,” but he stopped short of calling
him a frontrunner. The fact that the
Republican primary season usually experiences
a strong turnout from the more
conservative side of the party hinders
Mr. Romney, as does that the last time
around when the GOP nominated Senator
McCain, viewed as the “moderate”
choice, it didn’t turn out so well for the
GOP in the general election.
Answering audience questions, Mr.
Blankley said that he didn’t think that
President Obama’s foreign policy successes
would factor into the result
come election time. He also said that
while both parties understand that the
“Occupy” protests could become a factor
in the 2012 elections, neither party knows
where it will go yet, so they remain cautious
of attaching themselves to one side
or the other.
For The Defense ■ December 2011 ■ 11