Posted on 11/04/2008 7:33:53 PM PST by NationalConservative
Edited on 11/04/2008 7:58:23 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
We cannot continue to nominate intellectual and ideological lightweights............."
Looking at all the IBTZs and such, but I think the poster is right. The pubs have a lot of soul searching to do. The one thing we used to do best was control government - size and spending. Now we stand for nothing. Bush IS at fault - big spender, prescription drugs, NAFTA spread-your-legs, runaway $$$war$$$ in Iraq, unwillingness to call the dems on their game. No wonder AMERICANS swept away republicans tonight. And it was AMERICANS, not just a few extreme leftists. RINOs like McCain offered no compelling difference from Bush - and AMERICANS are fed up. We’ll see how O’Bomber governs, scary to me, but he has an opportunity to meet the expectations of the center and keep republicans out of power for a decade or more. I sure don’t see an end game for republicans; they blew their chances.
Oh, please. Duncan Hunter is a conservative in his blood. Palin cannot articulate her views convincingly. She spouts platitudes. When she deviates from the party line when it endorses big-government theft like the bailout bill, then I’ll take her seriously.
Gingrich? Have you heard his stance on environmentalism? Get lost you dope!
What was Palin supposed to do? Say “here’s why McCain is too liberal?”
She was completely hamstrung by McCain’s proposals.
And another thing - McCain did a poor job of distinguishing himself from Bush.
The argument was “McCain is Bush” and McCain wasn’t able to list areas where his policies were different from Bush’s.
I like Palin, I support Palin going forward, and I would be interested in seeing what her true beliefs are, beyond what we already know.
Newbie take you crap somewhere else!
Palin could well be another Maggie Thatcher, we never got a chance to find out. McCain is... well, McCain. He had so much baggage when he started that he never got a chance to get rid of it.
Another thing. One of the talking heads may actually have said something right tonight when he pointed out that the Republican ticket could have had Ronald Reagan and Abe Lincoln on it and they still wouldn’t have shaken the ‘Bush’ odor off their clothes. Too many people are just tired of Bush and don’t want to have anything that will remind them of these past eight years. If that’s true and we’re able to hold Obama down a bit, Palin just might be able to team up with Jindal or Hunter or some other relatively new face to win in 2012.
Then again, maybe the Mayans knew something we don’t.
Sorry, but I have to agree with NationalConservative here, though I would have phrased it differently.
Palin is very likable, but her selection completely undermined John McCain’s argument against 0bama.
McCain should have recognized that picking Palin would make a hypocrite out of everyone — both Republicans and Democrats — but only Republicans are ever held accountable.
0bama’s inexperience was not held against him in his quest to become president, but Palin’s inexperience was held against McCain.
Neither McCain nor Palin ever developed a strong theme against 0bama, and both of them — particularly McCain — stepped on it as soon as it started taking off. McCain talked in short hand too much, acted like he was speaking on the Senate floor, and generally let 0bama get away with outrageous lies.
The McCain campaign did a lot of “what about those associations, eh?” but they never answered the question. Most importantly, they never painted a picture of the future under 0bama... something Brit Hume has done a better job of laying out clearly in the matter of the last 15 minutes than McCain did in 6 months.
So I agree, we do need someone who can make a good, convincing, coherent case, a Newt Gingrich or a Mitt Romney. Not that I think either one is necessarily the best candidate for 2012. I honestly don’t see a charismatic, solid common sense conservative on the horizon.
Just like your posting here tonight
My, my, who would have thought it.
It’s true. Watch Reagan’s early speeches. Ideological, cogent, strong. Principled.
McCain is lacking a focused, well reasoned conservative world view. That is why he wouldn’t fight Obama. He doesn’t realize he’s a card carrying marxist. He said we had nothing to fear from Obama, for god’s sake.
Weak, weak, weak.
“Get a clue before insulting me online, big boy.”
FYI Kevmo’s been a member here for a lot longer than your 3 weeks.
And from where I’m sitting, it seems that it was you who launched into the insults.
So if you don’t like the return fire you’re getting, then you shouldn’t be so quick to “skin the smoke wagon” next time.
People who want smaller government?
When Biden took credit for the rejection of Judge Bork in the debates, she said nothing in response.
A more knowledgable conservative would have pointed out that
1) It deprived the country of a great Supreme Court Justice.
2) It poisoned the nominating process for Judges for at least a generation.
3) The fact that Biden is on Obama’s ticket calls into question all the claims in “the audacity of hope” about respecting honest differences of opinion.
4) She should have been able to name a Supreme Court decision that she disagreed with. Texas v. Johnson would have been an easy choice.
Blame McCain for not voting against the bailout! Blame the MSM for not reporting anything against OBAMA!
I nominate this as the most useless post of the day.
I vehemently disagree with you about Palin. Without her, McCain was just another RINO. McCain fought for the Presidency with all the strength of a Bill Frist, who never did follow through on that “nuclear option.”
Forget Newt and whomever. You sound like a pundit, and that’s anoying the hell out of me.
Now Jindal and Palin...That is one ticket I would endorse wholeheartedly.
Alright pumpkin, let’s hear the “unique” approach to conservatism that you and Newt are going to sell the American people. Get Noonan and George Will to back you up, and when you all get stupid on your intellectual arrogance, we can measure the difference between a good, intelligent, American woman like Sarah, and yourselves. Maybe you can finish the work the left started, and do your best to destroy her. That will put the Republican Party back together. Come on, enlighten us.
I agree with you wholeheartedly.
McCain dragged this ticket down. he played a ‘Gentleman’s Game’ in an arena where that has never worked. His appearances were lack-luster.
McCain was not my first choice either, not even my third. He didn’t have what it takes to “want” the Presidency.
On the other hand Obama played the game fully with distraction, innuendo and lies. Pulling the racist card and any other trump card he could to “Dazzle the American Public with B*ll S*it.” The MSM went right along happily.
Well it worked as the vast majority of the American public didn’t see through Obama’s smoke screen nor did they see a vigorous and viable candidate in McCain.
Now we wait to see if the ‘Triple Crown’ (WH, Senate & House) will go to the Dems. If it does the Dems will have to get their act together cause there will be no George Bush or John McCain to blame.
Obama didn’t campaign for anyone but himself, Will a Dem controlled House & Senate disagree with a Dem President? I think not. Will a Dem President veto a Dem Congress outrageous spending and taxation bills? I know he will not.
IMHO, first 6 months watch for some huge spending initiatives, big cuts in the military and a tax package including the repealing of the Bush tax cuts, early.
The Dems will still get Republicans to vote with them so no filibusters in the Senate. Also, activist judges at all levels of the Federal judiciary. Obama has let it be known loud and clear that he believes the Constitution is flawed. He’s given you his answer, ‘CHANGE IS COMING’.
Words have meaning and his were loud and clear. However few listened. Some have drank the Kool Ade all their lives and weren’t going to change no matter what. Other were disillusioned with President Bush and chose to vote their disillusionment over the good of the country.
This was a watershed election, more than any other in recent history. We will not live with the decision and time will tell if we’ll be able to recapture any majority again.
The GOP was a ‘Big Tent’ for a reason. Because that was the only way to beat the Dems. I doubt very much any other party will capture the numbers that way. Third parties haven’t to date and none I’ve seem to have cropped up in the last year that showed that much promise or massive numbers of members.
It seems the citizens have moved to a more centrist position, electing Dems, like it or not. Moving to the center rather that staying in a conservative mold. We have to ask why? The get a plan to combat the Dems and their ideology for the mid-term elections in 2010.
Who ever is running in 2012 had better start now! Newt isn’t strong enough. Fred and or Hunter would be good but I don’t know that they really want it with what they showed earlier this year. If you give me Romney or Huckabebe, after I puke I’ll pick Romney.
Our choices are bleak. Palin is stable and strong. Not strong enough for the top slot but time will tell. Jindal I’d have to study more but I just don’t know. Many others named are so regional that I don’t see them getting a national prominence unless they buck up and move out now.
We’ve got problems that a 3rd party will not solve. It’s called communication and backbone and the willingness to fight. Only a handful have shown that and hopefully they all get reelected to the Senate and House.
Let me collect my used jock straps, you can munch on those as your appetizers.
Our problems are not primarily tactical but strategic. Any postelection analysis which turns on tactical what-ifs serve only to compound our dilemma, increase our confusion, and prolong our time in the wilderness.
The problem was not Sarah Palin, the choice was brilliant for reasons I do not think you have even begun to consider. She was criminally mishandled by the McCain people. She now has a long Alaska winter to hone her forensic skills and craft a serious series of policy positions. If she does, she could move into a position of leadership. If she does not show intellectual mettle, she will pass by the wayside as an interesting character on the American political scene. But do not under estimate Sarah Palin's moral force. That is the essence of the woman and the secret of her appeal.
If you are a libertarian what have you to offer the social conservatives, for without an accommodation between these two groups in our party the road back will be a steep and lonely climb?
John McCain is not a conservative, he is a patriot and as such we owe him a degree of respect. If he was the wrong man at the head of the ticket, who put him there?
Some of us have been pointing to the demographic challenge for more than two years. We have warned that the fiscal debauchery of the party would kill it. I for one have saved my posts to prove it.
We were not blindsided, all of this was foreseeable and predictable. In fact, it was predicted right here on free Republic.
It is nice of you to drop in on us on election night to share your insights with us.
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