Editorial for June 12, 2008 edition:


The fear factor

Only a sliver of Northeast Philadelphia, Lawndale, Northwood and Frankford, is in Democrat Chaka Fattah’s North and West Philly-based 2nd Congressional District, but the withdrawal last week of Mr. Fattah’s Republican challenger is sad but stark evidence that the term urban Republican is an oxymoron.
Only a total nitwit would deny that the challenger, Michael Livingston, was the crystal-clear underdog in the race. Anybody with at least half of a brain, which includes most politicians, knows that Mr. Livingston’s prospects — indeed, any Republican candidate’s prospects — of defeating Mr. Fattah in the Nov. 4 general election were only slightly better than the prospects of Monica Lewinsky becoming an intern in Hillary Clinton’s Senate office.
Even if Barack Obama were not at the top of the ticket in the overwhelmingly Democratic, largely black 2nd district, the cold, hard political reality is that Mr. Livingston was going to be demolished by Mr. Fattah on Election Day.
Nevertheless, politicians running for re-election should never — we repeat, NEVER — get free rides in their quest to hold on to power. Token opposition, which appears to be what Mr. Livingston offered judging by the lack of financial and moral support for his candidacy from the local and national Republican Party structure, is better than no opposition at all.
Despite grim prospects of winning congressional seats in Philadelphia-based districts, the Republican City Committee has a moral obligation to recruit people to oppose entrenched Democratic incumbents every two years, and those challengers should stay in the race until the last vote is counted. Quitters never win, and winners never quit. ••

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