Make Him Head of State

I don't know how to break this to you, but he won the majority of votes because people wanted him to be the head of our government.

The attempts to turn Nancy Pelosi into a hate-figure becasue Obama is close to unassailable just get more and more pathetic and transparent.

Your plan requires the cooperation of two people that are highly unlikely to give Republicans their cooperation: Obama and Pelosi. I don't see a split between the two: they are very close policy-wise; while they have different styles, they appear to mesh pretty well. There is no evidence of that he was running for symbolic reason.

It appears to me the Republicans are choosing to oppose Pelosi, not because of her policy, but of her personality. That seems to be the Republican national plan of opposition developing rather than modernizing their platform or focusing on issues, the party chose the easier path of attacking people rather than the difficult path of thoughtful opposition.

If the economy remains in the tank with no observable improvement, it will probably work. Republicans have laid the groundwork of nationalizing the election in 2010 and would be able to focus America's discontent on the Democrats. However, if there is improvement, whatever remaining moderate Republicans left will be in big trouble. Even if there is no improvement, I believe Democrats will still be able to make a convincing case that the Republicans were at fault and still can't be trusted to fix it. That's the real Republicans' Vietnam: will they be able to recover voter's trust on the number one issue.

I don't think that Aberman's arguing for the creation of two new executive positions to replace the office of the president.  From a positioning standpoint, his argument actually makes quite a bit of sense.  Face it: Obama's popular, is most likely going to stay popular, and probably is going to survive whoever the GOP nominates in 2012.  That, coupled with the fact that the GOP usually does it's most appealing work when it is playing off of strong American loyalty and patriotism, creates an excellent opportunity:

1) Commend Obama for everything he does in foreign relations.  Throw support behind the White House's foreign agenda and surprise everyone with how "bipartisan" we're willing to be in an area where, realistically, we don't have much beef with Obama.  Plus, the Constitution gives the executive the lead in foreign relations, and we do want to make sure we support the Constitution. 

2) On domestic issues, which is where the real beef is, hold the feet of Pelosi and the Congressional Dems who are writing and voting on domestic policy TO THE FIRE!  Make sure that we can articulate better domestic plans first (because otherwise that "Party of No" moniker gets more and more ground), but, once we have them, give Pelosi and Reid the same treatment that Daschle got in '04.  Pelosi, Reid, and your average Congressional Dem in the rest of the country aren't nearly as popular as Obama is, and the coattail effect will be greatly minimized by isolating his popularity to not include the Dems in Congress.

And, by the way, the "Head of State"/"Head of Government" distinction isn't quite as unconstitutional as some of the posters have stated.  As per Article 2 of the Constitution, the President is the Head of State; but, as per Article 1, there is no "Head of Government" in the United States... that's the role of Congress.  It does make things messy and disorganized sometimes, but at least we avoid executive control over all aspects of our domestic agenda, which was precisely what the Founders intended when they set it up that way.  

Face it. The Republicans have reached an ideological dead end. You guys left no honest way out for trap you've put yourselves in.  The whole "gov't is bad" meme is dead.  It's over. You guys are like the Native peoples who saw those Spanish boats on the horizon. Your world is over. It may take another 15-20 years to complete what has begun but, make no mistake it has begun and it will continue.

Your world is over not because of some inherent evil in Conservative thought but because everything is way more complicated than can be maintained within a consevative philosophy. Government is not the problem. Bad, inept, incompetent government is the problem. Somewhere along the way you guys conflated the two and tied yourselves in a knot.

You want to entertain the thought cecession yet at the first sign of an epidemic you want run to the government for help and still be taken seriously. Those are things children do. You want to claim Obama is a fascist then complain when he declare the US will not torture prisoners of war. Which is it?

You have to come up with a political philosphy that does more that make you feel good for the 15 minutes before someone considers it seriously. You guys have basically retreated to your own 5 yard line and are amazed Obama keeps scoring touchdowns. Why? You guys have to offer up someone who is in the same league as Obama. I don't see that happening at the moment.

Tea parties and complaints about style ain't gonna cut it.