Democrats are losing ground as the midterm elections near, and it's clear the Republican Party will have "a good year,'' says Mary Matalin, former campaign director for George H. W. Bush and chief counselor to Dick Cheney.
Matalin, a veteran Republican political consultant, said Monday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
Newsmax TV that several factors weigh into the decreasing popularity of liberals.
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"[President Barack] Obama is losing women. He now has a gender gap. He's losing women over these beheadings [by ISIS] and absence of foreign policy, Obamacare, and the rest of it, so that accounts for it," she said.
Also, Matalin says, Democratic candidates are not as strong as their Republican counterparts. A case in point, she said, is Republican Scott Brown, who is attempting to unseat Sen. Jean Shaheen.
"I'm not saying Jean Shaheen is a bad candidate, but I'm saying Scott Brown is a much better candidate . . . He's a good candidate, particularly for that kind of moderate region," Matalin said.
A new CNN/ORC International poll shows the two candidates in a dead heat, with 48 percent of likely voters saying they would vote for Brown and another 48 percent for Shaheen.
Matalin said Republicans have learned from the mistakes of the past.
"We were way ahead in the polls in the last go-around, and Obama beat us because of his superior machine," she said.
"Intensity can be met . . . We have to be vigilant. We have to vote even if not all these candidates are to my liking.
"We have to even up our intensity and up our ground game . . . It's certainly going to be a good year for Republicans."
Matalin had high praise for Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, whom the
Washington Post reports is shifting his position on issues, moving from one-time libertarian ideologue to "a politician, like everybody else."
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In an article published Sunday, the Post's David Fahrenthold says the potential 2016 GOP presidential candidate risks damaging his image as "an authentic non-politician who is unafraid to stand up for his beliefs."
Matalin told host Steve Malzberg:
"[Paul is] a good politician. He's trying to thread the needle between," she said. "He's going to have to get in his own, stand his own, figure out who he is and then stay with it."
On the battle against the Islamic terror group ISIS, Matalin said the United States must be ready to dig in for the long haul.
"People have got to suck it up, buckle down, get ready. I don't care how fatigued you are — this is a threat to the United States," she said.