Andrew Malcolm notices an interesting result from the latest CNN poll, one which CNN itself hesitates to note. Since going on the offensive against a popular new president, former VP Dick Cheney has improved his favorability rating, and perhaps that of his former boss as well:

The more former Vice President Dick Cheney criticizes the Obama administration for drastically changing the national security policies of the Bush administration, the more popular Cheney seems to become among some Americans. … [A] little-noticed new CNN/Opinion Research poll released the other day shows Cheney’s favorable ratings have jumped by more than a quarter since last winter. And this May poll of 1,010 adults was taken before his widely viewed speech to the American Enterprise Institute that further assaulted President Obama’s policies for threatening U.S. national security. Cheney has rapidly improved his standing, from a low point of 29% to 37%, a gain in terms of ratio of more than 27% in just four months. Bush improved from 35% to 41%. Of course, as Andrew points out, he’s still seen unfavorably by a majority of Americans (55%), and so is Bush (57%). It seems that the undecideds have begun to break back in favor of both, perhaps garnering some better support from previously disaffected Republicans and a few independents.

When Cheney first began pushing back against Barack Obama’s repeated and scornful assessments of the Bush administration, most analysts figured that Cheney was tilting at windmills — and that the GOP needed to distance themselves from Cheney. The rapid re-evaluation appears to have made hash of that advice. If Cheney — a politician as unpopular as Richard Nixon — could strengthen his standing by demanding an honest debate from the President, then perhaps other Republicans should be following suit. Obama may have a large font of personal popularity among the electorate, but Cheney’s taking his national-security policy stands apart, mostly because he seems to be the only Republican willing to do it.

I’d prefer that fresh Republican leadership take that role, as I wrote earlier this year, but in the absence of any such leadership, Cheney appears to be doing an effective job. How effective? E.J. Dionne reported this weekend that Obama now has to hold dual briefings to convince the center-right that he’s just as tough as Cheney on Guantanamo:

Last Thursday afternoon, for example, the White House invited in journalists, mostly opinion writers, to sell them on the substance of the president’s big speech on Guantanamo and the treatment of detainees.

Unbeknown to the writers until afterward, they had been divided into two groups, one more centrist with a sprinkling of moderate conservatives, the other more liberal. (I was in the liberal group.) The president made an unscheduled appearance at each briefing. As is his way, he charmed both groups.

The idea, as far as I can determine, was to sell the liberal group on those aspects of Obama’s plan that are a break from George W. Bush’s policies, and to sell the centrist group on the toughness of the president’s approach and the fact that it squares with Bush’s more moderate moves later in his second term.

Dionne believes that Cheney “helped” Obama with his speech at AEI that day criticizing Obama on his national-security policies, but the very existence of the dual briefings shows that Cheney is drawing blood in this debate. It also calls into question the honesty of Obama. Why make two different cases simultaneously, telling one group that he’s abandoning Bush’ policies and the other that he is not? Does Dionne believe that builds Obama’s credibility, or undermine it?

Cheney isn’t making two different and nearly mutually exclusive cases. Right or wrong, Cheney’s only talking out of one side of his mouth. The fact that Obama has to talk out of both sides, rather than simply make a cogent and consistent argument to all Americans, shows that Cheney has pushed him out of his comfort zone, and Obama’s flailing in response.

Like an alcoholic we cannot begin to really recover until we have completely hit bottom. Our "fellow citizens" are desperately clinging to Zero and his absurd notions thinking him to be some kind of "faux life preserver". Until they wake up we are kind of stuck. With the lamestream media covering Zero's flanks and the gummint blowing hot air into the economy things are currently at a "stalemate". The Dow is hovering over an abyss and the slightest puff of air sends it jumping hundreds of points on artificial hype while the Fed buys Treasuries and China dumps US debt as fast as possible without absolutely plummeting the value of it's remaining holdings.

Meanwhile "back at the ranch" we have "clowns and circuses". Witness the Chrysler dealers and Sotomayor. It might be nice to contemplate "fighting back" but at the present moment we have no "troops" positioned to strike any "pass into enemy territory". At the moment we can only sit in our redoubts and wait for our "domestic enemy" to try to extend out of his encampents and expose himself (which he is doing!)

Unfortunately the encampments he posseses are the scattered densely populated urban centers in the midst of our own country! As the Colonel in Apocolypse Now pointed out war is horror. We are on the verge of unbelievable horror right here at home. The tools and weapons we have that remain to us won't be much use until we are quit far along into the horror part at which point I have every confidence that we will prevail and rebuild what once was the greatest hope of mankind. We will suffer quite heavily along the way. Zero and his minions won't go without quite a struggle.

Is there some other way out of our dilemma? Sure. We might wake up and find ourselves at war tomorrow with Norks and Mullahs and have no choice but to join with Zero and his minions to fight an external enemy. A number of twists in the road ahead could prevent a major conflict between We The People and our gummint but the path we are currently on inexorably leads us to one.

Am I ready to fight? You betcha, read my tag. Is it time for the fight we can win? Not quite, but soon I fear.

Μολὼν λάβε

You are wrong. If you spent the energy demoralizing the Zero's followers you are spending trying to convince me that there are no options left but open warfare, maybe we could avoid the latter.

Have no illusions.

Look at Sarajevo, a once-modern city which hosted the Olympics and was the jewel of the Balkans, reduced to dark-age rubble in less than a year of civil war.

Is that your vision of America's future?

Piffle!

What do I do?

EVERY CHANCE I GET I RUB IT IN.

Every boneheaded ripoff, stupid policy, communist appointment, I go p*ss off a Democrat.

They take themselves sooo seriously, and see themselves as sooo smart, that it is easy to make them feel like the dumb@sses they are.

If ever I hear one whine, just a little, I get in my digs, "How's that change sh*t working out for you?".

"You realize, the man is a fraud? He never had the American 'black experience', his ancestors weren't slaves here, they probably sold them there, and the other side of the family is white. What a bunch of suckers!"

Lay that liberal 'white guilt' right back on 'em!

Make them squirm.

Cost them some sleep at night.

I am sure you can come up with a few of your own if you think about it.

Now, the GOP a weapon?

In a couple of different hands, maybe, but with the nits running it now, we are looking at a rudderless craft with most of the occupants back-to-the-bow, hauling away on the starboard oars, veering relentlessly to port on a path of self-destruction.

Even the Bismarck was a sitting duck instead of the scourge of the seas with a jammed helm.

Either we can sieze the helm and get that vessel on the right track, or it is time to jump ship in droves.

The only thing that gives the national 'party elites' power is a party, and they still do not understand that without us, they are all a fine figurehead on a dinghy.

Even those of us holding back our donations has failed to get through to them.

So now, let me propose a way to make our voices heard.

Just once, and for under two bucks a head.

Send the GOP a one dollar bill, preferably a nice, new, crisp one.

Affix to said bill, by the means of your choice, the message "Turn Right". (note, I am not advocating the defacement of US currency, which I believe may be a crime).

Send that dollar bill, to the National GOP, return address optional.

Each will be a vote on what we think they should be doing.

Each will have the same message.

Each will, like a tip in a t*tty bar, be a donation to an entity of questionable virtue, but enough of these just might get through to those running the GOP that they are headed in the wrong direction.

At the very least, it will bring home that by a factor of ten or more they are missing out on a possible donation block, and if enough dollars go their way, a huge one.

For those more indelibly inclined than a sticky note, the message will circulate among the people for an average of 18 months, or cost a grundle in replacing the new bills as they are prematurely pulled out of circulation, getting in a poke at the corrupt bankers and the Fed as well.

Use your imagination. Little things make big messes, without crossing into criminal activity, which the enemy (yes! enemy!) would use against us.

Those who have stood by the war in Iraq and Afghanistan despite the relatively protracted nature of that conflict need to stand tall here at home, take up the standard, and resist the Socialists on our shores.

Protest them, badger them with questions in hometown forums, write them daily. If your people in DC are doing the right thing, tell them. I am sure they'd love to hear a friendly 'voice'.

If not, let them have it.

Now, let me warn you, generally speaking, the change we need isn't going to happen overnight. It was late in 1944 before we had the Axis on the run, and we had help, and we had been all-out at it as a nation with our allies since Pearl Harbor (we had ramped up the means of production before that with lend-lease).

The people who have been working on getting the Socialists in power we have today have been working on this for decades, nearly a century.

Decades.

Nearly a century.

Let that soak in.

Well now they have the plum, and they are sucking it dry. We are witness to the greatest theft in history, one which makes the sacking of Rome look like boosting a pack of twinkies from a 7-11.

We have a (likely Constitutionally unqualified) occupant in the White House, who has with the assistance of his cronies in Congress, looted the treasury, and with a swarm of co-conspirators, used the US Government to frame the situation so they can justify not only stealing the fruits of the labors of generations to come, but the means of production as well.

What can we do?

For starters, boycott any outfit getting bailout money.

Don't use those banks, use local ones who remained solvent by using sound banking principles.

Shrug, Atlas. Starve the beast.

There will be no new GM or Chrysler products in our household, just the occasional part for the old ones.

Add to the list.

Teach your children and grandchildren the values which made this country great, about the founders, original intent, and don't trust the schools to tell them squat about their history.

Point out every fallacy, relentlessly, expose the lies without fail. Go ahead, yell at the talking heads on your TV (you know you want to!)

Pick up your pen and write manufacturers and request they put the instructions "En Ingles, solamente" on all their products for sale in the US, or you will first buy products which have instructions solely in our native language.

Make the illegals at least learn the words for toilet paper, and the common foodstuffs which contribute to the need for it.

Keep writing.

By myself I can only send a few pounds of letters to Washington a year, but 100,000,000 of us can send rail car loads. Know it might not make any difference, but at least make your points known.

Mentor kids. Plant the seeds of love of Liberty in them, "Wouldn't you like to keep more of what you earn?", plant the desire to excell, for its own sake, and for the eventual compensation which will come. Praise all good, Loudly condemn the bad.

Point out the transparency of the 'emperor's' wardrobe.

Feed the fires of rebellion against those in power, guide our youth so they see other options besides a shooting war.

Be the first kid on your block to 'go to camp', if it comes to that, and leave a job opening or two extra when you go, fine.

But if you really love this country, you will do all the other things before then, every little action of resistance you can, long before you will go out and shoot anyone in the streets.

You will endure, for the sake of the Republic, that we may overcome our present difficulties and get this nation back on track, relatively intact.

Be under no illusions, open warfare on our shores will cost us, not only lives and treasure right here at home, but likely our nation as well.

If it ever comes to that, I'm ready for whatever, as much as I can do, but we have a lot of options to exhaust first.

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