Fred Barnes over at the Weekly Standard tells us Republicans that if we are waiting for a comeback it might be years, but not in 2008.

“First, the good news. Conservatives won a sweeping victory in an enormously important election the week before last. Unfortunately, it happened in England, where Boris Johnson won the race for mayor of London and Conservatives trounced Labour all across the country. Now, the bad news. Prospects for Republicans in the 2008 election here at home look grim. The political environment isn’t as bad as it was in 2006 when Republicans lost both houses of Congress and a lot more. But it’s close.

The empirical evidence is well known. More than 80 percent of Americans believe the nation is heading in the wrong direction. Democrats have steadily maintained the 10 percentage point lead in voter preference they gained two years ago. And President Bush’s job performance rating is stuck in the low 30s, a level of unpopularity that weakens the Republican case for holding the White House in 2008.”

He goes on to cite all the current polling data showing voter dissatisfaction (when are they ever satisfied?), and how the Dems are out raising and registering voters (whether dead or alive, legal or illegal we don’t know).

So Gloomy Fred sums up:

“If the Conservative triumph in Britain last month has any relevance for America, Republicans shouldn’t get their hopes up in 2008. It took Conservatives 11 years to recover from their landslide loss to Labour in 1997. The Republican recovery–what there is of one–is less than two years old.”

What of course he leaves out is that any poll taken before the respective conventions will differ once those conventions are over and the contenders are established. I’ve said constantly that once Obama wins the nomination things will change specifically once the media begins to divide greater scrutiny of his “words” and his positions.

I know, the media is infatuated with Obama. Yeah it’s true to a certain extend individually (Matthews getting that jiggy up his leg), but remember that major news organizations are run by large corporations which would suffer under an Obama presidency. Obama has already promised hugh tax increased specifically with large businesses and Wall Street hates tax increases.

Moreover some journalist have had it up to their pencil erasers with his “let them eat waffles” BS when it comes to answering REAL questions about his positions. We’ve seen how frustrated he gets when asked to be “specific”, even walking away from the cameras and taking a “no questions” sabatical. Remember this?

Take if from a journalist, we hate that. The more you hide the more we dig, no matter who you are.

But as I’ve said this doesn’t mean that he can’t win in November. I’m not that deluded to think that we don’t have problems but I’m still convinced that this is a conservative nation by and large and Obama - for all his moderate play acting is nothing more than a present day 60s liberals. As we found out in 1972, even at the hight of voter dissatisfaction over the Vietnam war and domestic unrest America will not elect a liberal.

Subsequently the GOP needs to begin to ramp up the truth of Obama’s nature and pedigree and I’m sure that will be the case after the convention.

Fred might be gloomy, but I’m not. I’m more hopeful for our chance to keep the White House than I was even in 2004 (which you will remember Fred was spelling gloom and doom back then).