RNC Chair Optimistic About 2008

OK, he wouldn't say he was pessimistic. Nevertheless, there are ample reason for Republicans to look forward to the election this year. The first is the significant fundraising advantage of the RNC over the Democratic National Committee:

On the fundraising front, [Mike] Duncan said that the RNC raised $83 million in calendar year 2007 from 800,000 donors. That is significantly lower than the $105.4 million that the RNC raised in all of 2005, when the party controlled Congress and Bush was just beginning the second term he had won in 2004. But Duncan said that he expects his organization to outraise the Democratic National Committee - which raised $50.5 million in the first 11 months of 2007 - by $30 million over the course of the entire year.

While this doesn't completely erase the advantage of the Democratic congressional campaign committees, it dramatically reduces it. Duncan also donwplays the significance of the fact that many more voters are participating in the Democratic primaries than in the Republican ones; he notes that that was true in 1980 and 1988 as well.

Lastly, it's not as if the Democratic candidate will be bulletproof. Rather, the fall campaign will feature a policy debate that may well favor the Republican candidate:

Duncan predicted a "spirited election in the fall" that would feature a stark contrast between the Republican and Democratic nominees - particularly, he said, on the federal government's role to affect a change in the nation's direction. He criticized both of the front-running candidates in the Democratic nominating contest, describing New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as a "lifelong liberal politician with some political baggage," and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama as lacking in sufficient experience to be commander-in-chief.

I doubt the omission of Edwards stems from the fact that Duncan considers him unbeatable.