APPRAISALS

A Week from Hell for Republicans

Noonan: Party needs a big tent.

It’s been a hard week for Republicans. Arlen Specter jumped ship, David Souter threw in the towel (read: any liberal Obama chooses will be a lock for the Supreme Court), and swine flu made pandemic preparedness naysayers feel pretty stupid. This moment may very well be the nadir in the Republican playbook, Peggy Noonan writes in The Wall Street Journal. In order to evolve, the party must reevaluate, she writes. The GOP may never have an Obama, but until it does, it just has to do its best. As all good parties do, the GOP needs to let everyone in—it needs to be "expansive and summoning. It needs to say, 'Join me.'" Noonan writes: “All the metaphors here are tired, so let's stick with the big tent. A big tent is held up by tent poles. No poles, no tent. No poles, all you have is a big collapsed canvas.”