BOTH SIDES: Spitzer-Matalin on GOP shellacking & Perry' s Potato°

Dear Friend,

On Both Sides Now in today's HuffPo Eliot Spitzer and Mary Matalin debate a week for the GOP to forget, from Perry' s freeze to Silberman' s healthy decision to voter rejection of Tea Party extremism. And it looks like no Bain-Cain ticket next year.

Spitzer-Matalin clash on the merits of so-called "Obamacare" but there' s a rough consensus on two points: given the opinion of Reagan judge Laurence Silberman, it would be -judicial activism" for the Supreme Court to hold it unconstitutional next Spring...but also help motivate an angry GOP base in the Fall election. For the President, it looks like a legal win and a political negative.

Then, was that the sound of a backlash last Tuesday in Ohio, Mississippi and Maine on labor, abortion and voting rights? A "teachable moment" for the GOP, according to Laura Ingraham?

Mary doesn't see this as a trend. Eliot agrees that it was a bad but not ominous day for the conservative agenda, since only the jobs issue will matter in 2012. OK, but what if unemployment and per capita GDP is neither improving nor worsening but middling?

As for Perry' s painful 53 seconds of forgetfulness on his core rationale of big government, Mary argues that what will matter to GOP voters is not his debate performance but his record in Texas. Eliot though notes that context counts - and the Governor's brain freeze showed a brain-dead candidate who -.lacks the intellectual capacity to be president." (Intrade has him at 4 percent chance of being the nominee, and falling.)

Mark Green,
Host, Both Sides Now
www.bothsidesradio.com

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