GOD, I feel awful!
So this is what it feels like to be whipped at the polls by a charlatan?
I still can’t get my mind around that fact.
How in hell did a relative unknown newcomer take on a genuine war hero and kick his butt?
For one thing, those of us on the right were out-worked. Period!
The Obama campaign was everywhere. They were in every state that mattered and they were canvassing door to door, calling on the phones and talking to America’s youth on the internet. Plus, don’t sell ACORN short. They got out the vote even if some of it was bogus!
Prior to the election, I remember thinking, “When is McCain coming to our state? Where are the McCain signs? I don’t see any large effort to ‘get out the vote’ for McCain… What’s going on? Is he taking us for granted?”
I helped set up 4x8 signs for our Republican Governor and wondered why we had no McCain 4x8s? Then suddenly we got a shipment of McCain 4x8s from Michigan when McCain pulled out of that state!
I thought, "This is not good..."
The Obama machine was indeed powerful and well heeled. Obama at first, said he would use public funding as did John McCain. Then later Obama realized that if he wanted to accept any foreign donations or any money from ‘questionable’ sources that he would need to forego public funds and opt out.
So when he went back on his word and accepted only private, hard to trace private funds, he was able to amass a huge war chest for the campaign. Reports say more than 600 Million dollars!
Usually that outlandish amount of money would make the hair on the necks of the media bristle. They would be working overtime, digging up donor names and sniffing the money trail. Not this time. The media was solidly in Obama’s camp from the beginning. He could do no wrong, even if what he was doing was underhanded and crooked! Just don’t tell us about it Obama… and he didn’t.
For another, we were out flanked by our own stupidity.
Did we really believe that a candidate with John McCain’s credentials and record and his public scolding of supporters like Rev. Haggee, would be acceptable to our conservative base?
The primary process gave us McCain. We didn’t choose him.
The open primary system did - A system where democrats could cross over and vote for McCain, and thereby ‘stuff the ballot box’ against the more conservative candidates.
The right supported candidates like Ron Paul and Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee. If Fred Thompson had not entered the race so late, he would have been my choice.
But when the conservatives began to see the handwriting on the wall, that neither Paul, nor Huckabee, nor Romney was going to get the nomination, most conservatives just stayed home.
Even after picking Sarah Palin as his running mate, McCain was still hard to swallow. And, while Palin does have Hollywood good looks, she isn’t ‘Presidential timber’, and some would say, barely VP timber! (Today I saw her pardon of the Thanksgiving Turkey interview in front of the slaughter house... bad form Gov!)
But, committed right wing conservatives just couldn’t bring themselves to vote for a man that wanted amnesty for illegals, and talked more like a Democrat than he did a Republican.
Heck, McCain nearly bolted the Republican Party in 2000!
What makes you think he wouldn’t do it again?
Conservatives didn’t trust McCain, even if he was a war hero and had a conservative running mate!
Personally, he offended me by NOT standing beside his President in tough times. I would have had much more respect for the man if he had said, 'GW is my President and I don’t care what you think of him!'
I don’t believe distancing himself from President Bush helped him did it? He might have garnered the votes of more conservatives if he had simply showed some backbone!
But we surely got whipped!
And the funny thing is, that the left doesn’t even know what they’ve done! They think they have voted for ‘change’, a ‘change we can believe in’. What the hell is that?
This Obama character is a completely unknown quantity. A few years in the Senate and community organizer credentials just doesn’t seem like adequate experience to me.
His whole campaign was based on running against Mr. Bush’s policies. That’s all he had!
Change!
Hummph!
How stupid do you have to be to believe that nonsense?
And now we see many of the same faces coming to government that we saw during the Clinton years? Is that the change you liberals were after?
So what’s next for conservatives?
Where do we go from here?
There are those like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gov of California, that say the Republican party should kick out the conservatives and make themselves more moderate.
Yeah, like he’s doing a great job out there in Cal?
If you’re ideas are so great Arnie, why are you in Washington with your hand out for some of the bailout money? Not going so well out there huh?
If Arnold wants to kick us out of the Republican Party, let him try. I don’t think that will fly. More likely we conservatives will regain the party leadership and kick out Arnie and McCain!
There are those that say we didn’t do enough for the moderates, that we should have been more attentive to what the American voter wanted. They say we were wrong and need to learn from our mistakes... That we need to be more like them.
All I can say is , “Who is this, them”? You mean moderates like McCain?
Hell... He LOST!
And then I say, “Hogwash”!
The only problem I saw during this election cycle was a lack of energy, a lack of excitement from the right.
Nobody, not one single candidate, was able to stir them, able to get them to rally around an idea, able to get them motivated.
Not one!
And why?
Because there was no ‘new idea’ that’s why.
There was no new, fresh approach. No great orator from the hinterlands coming forth to stir the souls of conservatives.
Nothing! That’s all we had… Nothing!
How hard is it to defeat that?
OK, OK.
Some say that the downturn in the economy really hurt McCain.
I really don’t think the economy had anything to do with it.
McCain was simply NOT a likeable person.
We didn’t identify with him. He wasn’t ‘one of us’.
Even with Gov. Palin at his side he looked out of place, out of sync, out of rhythm. It just wasn’t his time and we all knew it – even he knew it.
What do we do now?
For one thing we go home and look ourselves in the mirror.
We ask ourselves if we could have done more?
...If we gave it our best shot?
...If we actually put forth our best candidate?
And, then ask ourselves, “Just what do you plan to do about that?”
We return to basic principles. A strong belief in God.
A strong belief in a frugal, non invasive, liberty sustaining, small government.
A strong belief in our Constitution.
A strong reverence for The Founders and a strong belief that their efforts were valiant and not in vain.
A belief that America is made up of unique individuals all striving for excellence.
And a belief that America is the greatest most beautiful country on the planet!
America doesn’t need fixing! Congress is what needs fixing!
We need to go back and listen to the words of William F. Buckley Jr. and recognize that we lost our way. That we forgot our core values. That we neglected our duty to the people that supported our cause.
When we lost Mr. Buckley earlier this year, President Bush stated:
STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT
America has lost one of its finest writers and thinkers. Bill Buckley was one of the great founders of the modern conservative movement. He brought conservative thought into the political mainstream, and helped lay the intellectual foundation for America's victory in the Cold War and for the conservative movement that continues to this day. He will be remembered for his principled thought and beautiful writing — as well as his personal warmth, wit, and generous spirit. His legacy lives on in the ideas he championed and in the magazine he founded — National Review.
Laura and I send our prayers to Chris Buckley, the Buckley family, and all who loved this good man.
_______________
Republicans need to remember what they stand for – The Party of Lincoln.
The party of emancipation and freedom. The Party of Taft and the Party of Reagan. The party that nurtures fiscal conservatism and libertarianism. The party of laissez-faire capitalism and free enterprise.
Republicans need new, fresh ideas! BIG ideas from fresh faces like Bobby Jindal and Sarah Palin. New ideas from our traditional conservative voices like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. New ideas about how to provide for our elderly, and how to produce an economical, snappy looking automobile that consumers want to buy. New ideas about how to be a world leader in commerce, manufacturing, and security.
We need fresh ideas for the 21st Century, NOW!
Yes, The Tree of Liberty needs some tending.
Maybe a little water and nourishment, maybe a little pruning as well.
The Founders, Bill Buckley and all conservatives would want us to keep it alive and well, and so we shall.
GOD BLESS AMERICA!
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