Along for the Ride - Ron Brownstein

http://nationaljournal.com/columns/political-connections/white-house-hopefuls-not-setting-the-gop-agenda-20110310

This is the best synopsis I've read yet of the Republican quandry. The candidates, whoever they are as technically there are none yet, have literally no control over the debate or even their own agenda. That agenda is being driven by the GOP House members who are particularly dialed in on Tea Party issues. Further, since there is a vacuum of an attention-drawing figure in the race for the presidency, the magnitude of the House members opinions is magnified. The result is that the issues are being driven farther and farther towards the right, an area that polls and national elections have shown independents will simply not tread. Obama, wisely, is sitting back and allowing the referendum to go from him back to them and their cacophany.

Unfortunately for the candidates, some of the anti-union and anti-illegal immigration rhetoric became muddled with some messages that will haunt the GOP. As Mr. Brownstein points out, the left can now point to a GOP president and predict a nationwide assault on organized labor. They can also present numerous unfortunate conflations and outright repugnant statements right from the mouths of the right wing talking corps that will be held up to paint the GOP as hostile to the newly emerging Hispanic population. Whatever the fair intent of these laws, it is irrelavent in the face of a couple of slurs and nasty jokes by those that support it.