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Here is video of Gov. Sarah Palin speaking this morning at the Republican Governors Association Meeting in Florida. Palin reflected on the Presidential Campaign, and the privilege it was to be the first woman nominated for Vice-President on a GOP ticket. Palin talked about the way Republican Governors must lead the way over the next four years in upholding conservative principles. . . . . (Watch Video)

(CNN) -- The questions now being asked are: Where to go from here and who's to blame for the downfall of the Republican Party? Too bad the concern for the future of the Republican Party had not been seriously addressed in the year 2000 when the Republicans gained control of the House, Senate, and the Presidency. Now, in light of the election, many are asking: What is the future of the Republican Party? But that is the wrong question. The proper question should be: Where is our country heading? There's no doubt that a large majority of Americans believe we're...

Re-Elect Steve Sanson for Clark County E-Board District C Steve Sanson strong commitment to his country and his community has been demonstrated through his leadership and service in the United States Marine Corps in Saudi Arabia during Desert Storm, which earned him the distinguishing Certificate of Commendation from the United States Marine Corps. Sanson served in the Marine Corps from 1985 to 1991 and the United States Army from 1992 to 1998. Within Clark County, Sanson assumes an important role with the Veteran Community. Steve Sanson is the former Chaplain for the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Marine Corps...

Gov. Schwarzenegger first ran for office during the 2003 recall election as a fiscal conservative and social moderate, but he quickly abandoned any pretense of fiscal restraint. He has expanded government and has proposed far-reaching health care programs and other measures. His current plan is to "fix" the state's massive and intractable budget deficit by dramatically raising sales taxes and expanding the sales tax to additional services. This governor has put the state in a precarious position with his debt spending, which really is nothing more than a tax on our grandchildren. Yet the California GOP, under his ostensible leadership,...

Darkness at Dusk By DAVID BROOKS Published: November 10, 2008 It’s only been a week since the defeat, but the battle lines have already been drawn in the fight over the future of conservatism. In one camp, there are the Traditionalists, the people who believe that conservatives have lost elections because they have strayed from the true creed. George W. Bush was a big-government type who betrayed conservatism. John McCain was a Republican moderate, and his defeat discredits the moderate wing. To regain power, the Traditionalists argue, the G.O.P. should return to its core ideas: Cut government, cut taxes, restrict...

I am driven to do something. So I have decided to buy an ad in my local newspaper in Southern Calif stating something like this: "If you are a true Conservative who is tired of being ridiculed for your religious beliefs and your views, if you would like to forever retire the phrase "reaching across the aisle" and cringe when you hear the word "maverick" because you are conditioned to understand this word to indicate that you have taken-- or will be taking-- a body blow from one of your own, if you believe the Republican party has abanonded its...

Mapping the election results county-by-county across America, most states reveal a quilted pattern of red and blue, with a few solid blue patches in the Northeast. Only one state turns solid red. "Inside the room, the noise was all positive" at the Republican watch party on election night in Oklahoma City, state GOP chairman Gary Jones said Wednesday. "Outside of Oklahoma, things were different." Oklahoma was the only place in the whole country where every single county voted for John McCain, making it the reddest of the red states. McCain took 65.6 percent of the total vote in Oklahoma —...

Among Oklahomans, Mr. Cook and Mr. White are hardly alone. Though the state’s Democrats still outnumber its Republicans, you would never know it by looking at the election results. Oklahoma voters went for Senator John McCain by almost two to one, bucking the tide that swept Mr. Obama to the presidency. Not a single one of the state’s 77 counties backed Mr. Obama, despite his endorsement by the popular Democratic governor, Brad Henry. ... Indeed, the state has a political landscape closely resembling that of the old solidly Democratic South, especially in its southeastern corner, known as Little Dixie, where...

RUSH: Man, things just keep falling into my lap here. Politicians of both parties unwittingly make me look like the genius I already am. Christopher Shays, moderate congressman from Connecticut who was sent packing on Tuesday, there are now no Republican members of the House from a northeastern state. So Christopher Shays decided to go on MSNBC and tell the Republican Party what it needs to do to win, after it just got wiped out. He was on with Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, Washington. "We saw what happened to Sununu, had a lot of support, a lot of good marks...

Here are my important safety tips to choosing a real conservative presidential candidate: * Make sure he/she doesn't faint when looking at the pictures of Sarah Palin with a dead Moose. * Make sure he/she knows how to stand by our troops. That means funding the war on radical Muslims jihadists. It also means standing up against artificial timelines to withdraw our troops. It also means calling a spade a spade. We are fighting a war against radical Muslims. Say it. Believe it. * Make sure he/she believes in Capitalism with a capital C. No further explanation is needed. *...

Obvioulsy the Republican party needs to rebuild quickly. To do so, it must to push the "moderates" and "aisle crossers" to the side and get back to message and platform of conservative principals, ideas and values. They can start by doing the following five, highly doable, things that need to be acomplished by 2010. 1) Elect Mike Pence or Thaddeus McCotter as the party's leader in the House. We need strong, bold leadership that will not bend or break. 2) Appoint Michale Steele as RNC chairman. Not because he is black, but because he is a solid conservative and good...

It's no secret that the Bush years have severely strained and perhaps broken the conservative-libertarian political coalition. Most libertarians were deeply disappointed by the Bush Administration's vast expansion of government spending and regulation, claims of virtually unlimited wartime executive power, and other departures from limited government principles. As a result, many libertarian intellectuals (and to a lesser extent, libertarian voters), actually supported Barack Obama this year, despite his being a very statist liberal. Republican nominee John McCain had opposed some of Bush's excesses, including rejecting Bush's stance on torture and being one of the very few GOP senators to vote...

As Obamaniacs whoop it up, the Right is undergoing the same self-examination it went through starting in 1977. Some decisions will be easy, others less so. Few will claim that "big government Republicanism" — or, as Goldwater referred to it, a "Dime Store New Deal" — is the wave of the future. Conservatives know that competing for the affection of voters by leasing their souls to corrupt lobbyists has been a fool's errand. Within days will come a restatement of minimalist government principles, especially by the economic right.

It’s no secret that Republicans across the nation took a beating on Tuesday. As the magnitude of this loss sinks in, some may find it therapeutic to cast blame on the economy, a biased media, being grossly outspent or other external factors. If we do, we do so at our own peril. Tuesday’s outcome was not so much a Democrat victory as it was a Republican defeat. America elected as its next president an inexperienced candidate whose entire campaign did little more than offer rhetorical “hope” and promise undefined “change.” Why did this message resonate? To find the answer we...

RUSH: Well, my friends, the new tone has finally come home to roost. For those of you perplexed by my meaning, I will 'splain this along with lots of other things as we engage in three hours of broadcast excellence from the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies, rebuilding the conservative movement. I take that back. The conservative movement does not need to be rebuilt. We had some people abandon the conservative movement, and we need to make sure they stay abandoned. Greetings, and welcome. Telephone number, 800-282-2882, and the e-mail address is ElRushbo@eibnet.com. Conservatism did not lose last night....

Let Them Go Their Way Governor Ronald Reagan (R-CA) March 1, 1975 Since our last meeting we have been through a disastrous election. It is easy for us to be discouraged, as pundits hail that election as a repudiation of our philosophy and even as a mandate of some kind or other. But the significance of the election was not registered by those who voted, but by those who stayed home. If there was anything like a mandate it will be found among almost two-thirds of the citizens who refused to participate. Bitter as it is to accept the results...

Well, we Republicans have just made history. Not the type of history we wanted to make, mind you, but history nonetheless. Not only did we lose the White House but, after losing our House and Senate majorities in 2006, we followed it up last night with even steeper losses in Congress.In January, Democrats will enjoy lopsided congressional ratios not seen since the 1970s. Let's face it: We Republicans are now, by any reasonable measurement, deep in the political wilderness.The temptation for Republican members of Congress today will be to assume the role of the post-Watergate Republicans of 1974 and accept...

I know this view is not popular here, but we need to have an honest discussion after what happened last night. There has been many calls to throw 'RINOs' out of the party. Yesterday's results, however, show that we cannot do that. Like it or not, conservatism is a word with many meanings: social, economic, libertarian, 'patriotic' conservatism, etc. Recently, it's obvious that whatever coalition that Reagan put together has fallen apart. Dubya, ran as a conservative,managed to bring all factions together, but as a president, he gave privilege to one or two factions, and left the others cold. Sarah...

While many in the media are single-mindedly focused on vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's outfits, Republican efforts to brand Sen. Barack Obama a socialist and the chances that Democrats will net nine Senate seats (giving them 60 seats in the next Senate), some other interesting things are going on -- things that are being missed. One of those is an unreported major Republican National Committee radio buy in eight key states: Colorado, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. The buy is interesting because it... --snip-- The ad, which is part of the RNC's Independent Expenditure campaign...

Former Mitt Romney presidential campaign staffers, some of whom are currently working for Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin's bid for the White House, have been involved in spreading ant-Palin spin to reporters, seeking to diminish her standing after the election. "Sarah Palin is a lightweight, she won't be the first, not even the third, person people will think of when it comes to 2012," says one former Romney aide, now working for McCain-Palin. "The only serious candidate ready to challenge to lead the Republican Party is Mitt Romney. He's in charge on November 5th."

Washington Prowler Post-Defeat Planners By The Prowler on 10.27.08 @ 6:11AM ERIC THE READY House Republican Deputy Whip Eric Cantor has spent the last week making calls to fellow Republican House members he believes will survive next week's election, according to several members who received the call. "He is already lining up support for his next job," says one member who spoke to Cantor. "I'm not sure what it is, and he doesn't seem to know, but it's not going to be deputy job, that's for sure." On the call, according to another member, Cantor apologized for the two economic...

Jim Nuzzo, a White House aide to the first President Bush, dismissed Mrs Palin's critics as "cocktail party conservatives" who "give aid and comfort to the enemy". He told The Sunday Telegraph: "There's going to be a bloodbath. A lot of people are going to be excommunicated. David Brooks and David Frum and Peggy Noonan are dead people in the Republican Party. The litmus test will be: where did you stand on Palin?" Mr Frum thinks that Mrs Palin's brand of cultural conservatism appeals only to a dwindling number of voters. He said: "She emerges from this election as the...

RUSH: I wish to reach around and pat myself on the back. Way back during the Republican primaries -- when the battle was between Huckabee and Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, and McCain -- we were told by the Republican Party hierarchy that the only chance the Republican Party had (by the way, we were told this also by some of the intellectualoids in our own conservative media) to win was to attract Democrats and moderates; and that the era of Reagan was over, and we had to somehow find a way to become stewards of a big government but smarter...

In the midst of a sagging economy and an unpopular war, it is no surprise that President George W. Bush is extremely unpopular. His approval numbers are now below 30%, in the range of Richard Nixon or Jimmy Carter. Bush’s troubles are impacting Republicans all across the nation. At this point, it is conventional wisdom that the Republican Party will lose seats in Congress this fall and face minority status on Capitol Hill. John McCain is the underdog in the presidential race, as some polls show him seven to nine points behind Barack Obama. There is little doubt that these...

One thing I liked about the Bush/Gore debates is that it was obvious both men loathed each other and they didn't care who knew it. That liberated them, for good and ill. By contrast, for all the characteristically ponderous huffing from Bob Schieffer about "negative campaigns", McCain was never able to cast aside the Senatorial collegiality and really stick it to Obama. Why couldn't he have used the s-word - "socialism"? Why couldn't he have said that his opponent is a perfectly pleasant fellow but he has an all but blank resume so all we have to go on is...

RUSH: What a sad state journalism must have to be in. We know it is, but it was on display last night, the sad state of journalism. You know it's bad when they have to drag Tom Brokaw out of Jurassic Park to moderate the debate. What happened to Brian Williams? What happened to Charlie Gibson? What happened to Katie Couric? Why go to Jurassic Park? Folks, I am sitting here, all I can do today is laugh. I've been having so much fun getting ready for today's show and I'm going to share it with you, greetings, great to...

Just as Charlie Gibson did in his interview with Sarah Palin, Katie Couric set out to humiliate the Republican vice-presidential candidate with a series of "gotcha" questions. This tactic -- rarely employed with major liberal candidates -- could be used equally effectively against Couric, or most any other liberal member of the television news media. It would be highly instructive to have Couric asked questions in the same way in which she (and Gibson) asked questions of Palin. For example: Q: Critics of the war in Iraq argue that prior to the invasion of Iraq, America had never attacked a...

RUSH: I want to dedicate today's Dow Jones Industrial Average, it's at about 269, up at the moment, to the Republicans in the House of Representatives for their boldness yesterday. Greetings, ladies and gentlemen, Rush Limbaugh, the Excellence in Broadcasting Network, and three hours of broadcast excellence, as you have come to know, love, and expect, straight ahead for the next three hours. Telephone number, 800-282-2882. The e-mail address, ElRushbo@eibnet.com. I was going to say, I can't believe how wrong everybody's getting this. Then I have to stop and think, yes, I can believe how wrong everybody's getting this, because...

After nearly eight years of voting in virtual lock step with President Bush on everything from tax cuts to torture, House Republicans decided on Monday to break ranks on the survival of the nation’s financial system. The rejected bailout bill that was on the floor after a weekend of hard negotiating was objectionable in many ways, but it was a Republican-generated bill and was improved from the administration’s original version. Sixty percent of House Democrats voted for the bill, enough to easily pass the measure if the Republicans had not decided to put on their display of pique and disarray....

Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn was among the conservative Republicans who bucked both parties’ leaders to kill the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 on Monday. She explained her reasoning to National Review Online editor Kathryn Lopez. Kathryn Jean Lopez: Monday morning on Bill Bennett’s radio show, you said you were leaning “no.” What solidified that no? Marsha Blackburn: Hearing from my constituents in the district solidified the “no” vote. We had phone calls and e-mails by the thousands. They did not want a bill that would favor Wall Street over the taxpayer. Lopez: Are you concerned by your vote you...

Observing the Sarah Palin phenomenon, does anyone feel like they're trapped in a singularly creepy remake of "Night of the Living Dead"? George W. Bush has been a political corpse for years. But Palin resembles a female version of Bush, brought back from the grave to win the election. You wouldn't think that the Republicans would want to exhume Bush. After all, his presidency has been a historic disaster, and the American people know it. But Bush was successful at one thing: winning elections. With its policies and ideology in ruins, Bush's political game plan is all that the GOP...

In fact, the Arizona senator sounded downright giddy when he introduced her in Cedarburg. "Isn't this the most marvelous running mate in the history of this nation?" he said. "He's pumped," McCain's longtime aide Mark Salter conceded after watching McCain and Palin in Albuquerque. "He's feeding off the crowds -- you've got these huge crowds, they're wildly enthusiastic and that's going to pump up any speaker. He loves campaigning with her." The duo, who had scarcely met before becoming a team, have begun forging a friendship helped by their irreverent senses of humor, aides say. The McCains and the Palins...

Does the Angry Left really want to launch a culture war over Sarah Palin? Fine. Lock and load. That's the feeling of many conservatives who until last week were lukewarm at best about the prospect of a John McCain presidency. The unhinged malice of the cultural left's assault on the Alaska governor's personal life has focused their minds and stirred their hearts. Ms. Palin's astonishingly poised and confident performance in her convention speech proves that this Iron Lady is not about to quail before the judgment of her would-be betters. Neither will conservatives. If they were indifferent or hostile to...

Does the Angry Left really want to launch a culture war over Sarah Palin? Fine. Lock and load. That's the feeling of many conservatives who until last week were lukewarm at best about the prospect of a John McCain presidency. The unhinged malice of the cultural left's assault on the Alaska governor's personal life has focused their minds and stirred their hearts. Ms. Palin's astonishingly poised and confident performance in her convention speech proves that this Iron Lady is not about to quail before the judgment of her would-be betters. Neither will conservatives. If they were indifferent or hostile to...

If there was any doubt that John McCain's surprise pick of Sarah Palin has grabbed the attention of many Republicans, Barbara Falk, a retiree born and raised in this quaint small town, put it to rest yesterday: "I came out to see her." So did Falk's friend Pat Mantel, who said, "I do enjoy that vice president that McCain picked." And so did Mantel's sister Carol Eberhardt, a retired lab worker and single mother of three, who said, "She speaks my language." A day after McCain gave what many critics panned as a flat acceptance speech, Palin proved to be...

On Wednesday, I called Kim and invited myself over to watch Palin's acceptance speech. Their living room, after all, seemed like the closest I could get to the conservative base. "We're energized," Scott said as we sat down to dinner before the speech. "Honestly, I might not have voted before this. But now I feel like it's 'game on.' The Democrats had an advantage in that Obama is a gifted speaker and incredibly appealing to his base. That was missing from our side. Now I at least feel like there's an equal playing field." "Exactly," Kim said. "She reminds me...

The tone and placement of the spread is no accident. In selecting Ms. Palin, a down-home girl with her own National Rifle Association membership card and anti-abortion narrative, the Republican Party is targeting a demographic of suburban women and small-town evangelicals that is as specific – and crucial to the election – as the towns she will visit over the weeks to come. “Her role here is, to borrow from Rush Limbaugh, ‘Babies, guns and Jesus,''' said Kyle Saunders, a professor of electoral politics at Colorado State University. “Over the past couple of election cycles there has been a slow...

It was the loudest and most prolonged cheer since Barack Obama appeared on the podium last week in Denver. Very few people had heard of Sarah Palin when Mr Obama delivered his acceptance speech eight days ago. One vice-presidential announcement, several news cycles and countless debates about sexism later, Ms Palin had been catapulted into starring role at a rejuvenated Republican Convention. Given the fluid nature of this presidential race, most analysts say it is much too early to pronounce whether Ms Palin's widely praised acceptance speech was the "game changer" that some Republicans claimed on Wednesday night. But in...

She’s gonna make it after all. Considering the location of the Republican convention, the theme song had already been written for Sarah Palin’s vice presidential campaign. It comes from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, based in the Twin Cities. “Who can turn the world on with her smile? Who can take a nothing day, and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile? Well, it’s you, girl, and you should know it; with each glance and every little movement, you show it. Love is all around, no need to waste it. You can have a town, why don’t you take it? You’re...

As I walked out after viewing John McCain's nomination acceptance speech into the balmy Northwestern evening, with the sun still illuminating the apricot clouds on the horizon, I looked up at the row of houses just across the street, and saw, through each of their front windows, eerily identical TVs showing the same giddy delegates and reporters and pundits at the Republican National Convention. John McCain's speech was moving, smart and well-delivered for his television audience on streets just like this one across America. The nominee punctuated his words with many wide smiles, grinning during a pause for disruptive protesters:...

Last January, on the night of John McCain’s back-from-the-dead victory in the New Hampshire primary, I asked a longtime adviser how McCain had survived the collapse of his campaign a few months earlier. “You know, in the darkest days, I think there were a lot of us who just respected him so much we just wanted to band together to make sure to restore his dignity,” the adviser told me. “But the chance of this actually happening was pretty remote.” And yet it did happen. After McCain won New Hampshire, he kept on winning until there he was, onstage last...

John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin was the most inspired decision of his long race for the White House. The ads lampooning Barack Obama's messianic pretensions were skillful as well. But the Palin pick accomplished several goals at once. It is, it must be acknowledged, a terrible year to be a Republican. A decidedly unpopular Republican president is finishing his second term. Republican party identification is at its lowest point in 16 years (27 percent, according to the Pew Research Center). All indicia of excitement — money raising, turnout at political events, buzz — strongly favor the Democrats. Further, the...

The future of conservatism is bright. All those liberal Republicans who were arguing that the GOP needed to “rebrand” itself and move leftward are now crying in their coffee. Arlen Specter is feeling lonely. Break out the world’s smallest violin. I’m verklempt. Bloomberg News: At a Tuesday reception for moderate Republicans, Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter hushed the cocktail chatter when he began ticking off a long list of like- minded lawmakers who no longer hold office. “Today, we’re in a phone booth,” Specter said. To conservatives at the Republican National Convention this week, John McCain’s choice of running mate Sarah...

Republican Presidential Nomination 1964 Republican National Convention Cow Palace, San Francisco From this moment, united and determined, we will go forward together, dedicated to the ultimate and undeniable greatness of the whole man. Together we will win. I accept your nomination with a deep sense of humility. I accept, too, the responsibility that goes with it, and I seek your continued help and your continued guidance. My fellow Republicans, our cause is too great for any man to feel worthy of it. Our task would be too great for any man, did he not have with him the heart and...

RUSH: Senator McCain just took the podium with raucous music, raucous crowd energy. The place is going nuts there in Dayton, Ohio. Let's join it in progress and listen. (cheers and applause) The senator is looking genuinely happy today. (cheers and applause) MCCAIN: Thank you. RUSH: Well, I'm just describing this for you all who can't see it, his wife is hugging him. MCCAIN: Thank you. CROWD: John McCain! John McCain! John McCain! John McCain! MCCAIN: Thanks for reminding me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. CROWD: John McCain! John McCain! John McCain! John...

Earlier this year Dr. Jim Dobson, President of Focus on the Family made news when he announced on “The Dennis Prager Show” that he “cannot and will not vote for Senator John McCain.” Today, on The Dennis Prager Show, the conservative leader changed course and announced his enthusiastic support on the heels of the announcement by Senator McCain of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate. Dennis Prager: I have a guest here who’s extremely significant in American life, whether you call it American political, certainly American religious life, one of the best known Christians in America—...

Barack Obama will lose the November election to John McCain unless he overhauls his message of change, outlines specific plans and reassures Americans that he is one of them, according to swing voters in Denver. The results of a focus group held by Frank Luntz, the leading American pollster, on the eve of the Democratic convention should sound alarm bells for the Obama campaign after a month in which Mr McCain, the Republican, has drawn level in the polls. "The way that he gets here to the Democratic nomination - 'change' - is not how he gets there, to the...

The last time I received a call from the RNC asking for money, I told them that when I see them actually waging a campaign and fighting for the Presidency, I'll give them some cash..well..I've gotta say I think they've been doing pretty good so far. Well, better than they've done in the past...what do you all think?

Party official calls him likely keynote speaker BATON ROUGE -- While Gov. Bobby Jindal appears to be sliding down the list of possible Republican vice presidential hopefuls, the nation's youngest chief executive could assume another prominent post at the party's national convention, delivering the keynote address four years after Democrats used their corresponding slot as Barack Obama's introduction to American voters. Louisiana Republican Party Chairman Roger Villere said the campaign of presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain has talked with Jindal's staff about the governor having "a prominent speaking role" at the convention. While cautioning that he does not know...

Everyone knows this, but it's worth repeating: The Republican Party is the party of Abraham Lincoln and was established in 1854 to block the expansion of slavery. The Democratic Party was the party of slavery: Its two founders, Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, owned large numbers of slaves, and every party platform before the Civil War defended the institution unequivocally. After the war, it was the Republican Party that rammed through the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution over Democratic opposition. Republicans also enacted a series of civil-rights laws that culminated in the Civil Rights Act of 1875,...