When Republicans carried the ball in Washington, Democrats sat and stewed on the sidelines.  They were correctly labeled as carping, whining obstructionists - voting nay to a host of Bush Administration proposals, tax cuts being but one example. And of course the war in Iraq was a favorite thumbs down issue.  Democrats were the Party of "No."  Incapable of winning elections, "No" was their one word vocabulary laced with vitriolic, unrelenting criticism of President Bush.

How times have changed!  Republicans are now on the sidelines as the Party of "No" redux.  Not one Republican House member and only three Republican senators supported Obama's "stimulus" package.  At almost every turn, on almost every issue, Republicans have become the new nay sayers.  Rather than being seen as the loyal opposition with a principled and positive agenda, Republicans are viewed by many Americans as hopelessly mired in negativity. And like that previous Party of "No's" assaults on Bush, Republican criticism of President Obama has been equally harsh and relentless.

The recent Republican temper tantrums and feigned outrage about bailouts, AIG bonuses and deficits are at best disingenuous. Bailouts - TARP - were initiated by a Republican Administration.  AIG bonuses?  TARP again And those deficits? Obama inherited a deficit of $482 billion from a Republican president and six years of a Republican Congress.  By the way, Bush inherited a budget surplus of $128 billion in 2001.  We won't debate here why it was squandered but the fact remains the budget was on the plus side of the ledger.

George W. Bush left office with an approval rating hovering around 22%. With the fleeting exception of post 9/11 - when his poll numbers were of stratosphere proportions - between 87 and 90% - his approval was never much above 42% throughout his presidency. Bush's unpopularity made it all too easy for Democrats to play the "No" game. And the public didn't seem to mind it.

Barack Obama's current approval rating is 59% - although it's slipped from 64% in February (Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, March 17). That 59% still isn't too shabby which only compounds the problems facing the Party of "No." Republicans are confronting a president who enjoys considerable support from the American people whereas the Democrats didn't.

The Obama factor should be particularly troubling to the Republican Party.  Unemployment in my state of Georgia is now at 9.3% - the highest in 34 years.  The state labor commissioner says it could go to double digits before summer begins.  The jobless rate in February was 8.1% nationally and we lost 651,000 jobs in the U.S. last month. Folks are hurting. We're in the middle of an emergency and politically the crisis works for Obama.  This is not just an economic watershed but a cultural one as well.

Peggy Noonan wrote, [there] "... is an unspoken public sense that we cannot afford another failed presidency, that we just got through one and a second would be terrible. Americans know how much good a successful presidency does for us in the world, in the public mind. The last unalloyed, inarguable success was Reagan. We need another. Liberal? Conservative? That, to the great middle of America, would, at the moment, be secondary. They want successful. They want ‘That worked'..." [Italics added]. ("Obama Dons the Presidential Cloak," Wall Street Journal, Februay 27).

People are angry and in these tough times, I think Americans want success for Obama. They could care lesss about political labels. His 59% approval rating reflects Ms. Noonan's "They want successful. They want ‘That worked'." The Party of "No"doesn't get it and, I might add, neither does the party's new face and voice, one Mr. Rush Limbaugh a, um...talk radio show host (see my post, "Fools Rush Limbaugh," March 9).

Barack Obama has occupied the oval office now for all of 63 days.  My math and calendar suggests he has more days to serve. If he isn't successful and it doesn't work out, we have a tonic called elections.  Now, however, the American people are willing to give Obama the benefit of the doubt. 

The GOP isn't on lfe support yet.  But it could sure use some roadside EMS assistance right about now. The Republican brand doesn't seem to be selling anymore.  As former Congressman Tom Davis (R-Virginia) famously said, "If we were a dog food, they would take us off the shelf."

The Republican Party faces some serious challenges ahead. But so it has in the past and rebounded with great success In the meantime, the RNC needs a big sign on the front door:  HELP WANTED... sorry about that Chairman Steele.

On second thought, a more realistic assessment of the Party of "No" may come from the title of one of Sartre's plays and perhaps that sign should instead read:  NO EXIT.