President Obama's likability factor

I watched Obama on Letterman last night. He's funny and quick-witted. He's a guy most of us would enjoy hanging out with.

You couldn't help but laugh when he said, "I think it’s important to realize that I was actually black before the election."

Of course, he also said last night that we have "had too little government."

Conservatives are in need of two things: 1.) A likable leader and 2.) A policy debate.

The likable leader is sorely missing and probably will be at least until a Republican nominee is settled upon in 2012 (unless we see a Gingrich-like figure emerge in the next year). Democrats arguably lost by the margin they did in 1984 largely because Walter Mondale just wasn't very likable. People simply have to like their leaders regardless of their policies.

Speaking of policies...the policy debate has begun. However, the charge is being led by Glenn Beck, Tea Party advocates, and even Michael Moore (though he's opposed to everything, so he hardly counts...), but not by the Republican Party. The party - not just a few congressmen here and there, but the party as an organization - must get involved and actually lead the debate if they hope to have a prayer against Obama.

Consider this quote:

"America's future rests in a thousand dreams inside your hearts. It rests in the message of hope in songs of a man so many young Americans admire, New Jersey's Bruce Springsteen."

That empty, blithering, policy-less mess about hope and dreaming came from none other than...Ronald Reagan during his 1984 campaign. And people liked it and they liked him!

Republicans can't resort to throwing pot-shot stones at Obama. They can't stay out of the fray of the opposition movement against his policies in hopes that he will self-implode and people will default to voting for Republicans as the "opposition party." The public is no more happy with Republicans than they are with Democrats right now.

It's time for Republicans to get some skin in the game if they want to survive. Bill Clinton beat a likable George Bush in 1992 because he was likable and he beat Bush at the policy game. Republicans have got to do the same thing with Obama.