The American Enterprise Institute is usually described as a "Conservative think tank," a phrase that in some circles prompts comments containing the word, "oxymoron." A few days ago here, I linked to a piece by right-wing strategist David Frum in which he opined that the G.O.P. had erred big with the way it thought it could bring down President Obama. Frum said it had backfired on them and been a tremendous loss and mistake.
His blog post got major attention…and it also seems to have gotten him fired from the A.E.I. (I say "seems" because they are claiming no cause-and-effect relationship, though the timing would suggest otherwise.) In any case, I'm kinda fascinated by the outrage to what Frum wrote. He didn't argue Conservative principles one bit…didn't suggest they rethink their positions on abortion or gun control or drowning government in a bathtub. He was arguing strategy, suggesting that (1) they got their asses kicked and lost big and so (2) they need to abandon their losing ways.
Near as I can tell, there's not a lot of disagreement on the first part. When you're furious and taking blood oaths to repeal what was passed, it means you lost big. And when you lose big in anything — politics, sports, playing Candy Land, whatever — shouldn't you at least consider that what you've been doing is the wrong approach? Not trying to give anyone advice here…just curious what it was about Frum's writing that pissed on the third rail for so many of his one-time colleagues. From their response, you'd think he was suggesting surrender on the battlefield instead of changing tactics in order to not have what just happened happen again.