Posted on 02/21/2009 4:42:41 AM PST by Cringing Negativism Network
I agree. Sarah Palin would be good, and I would support her, I think it’s a little early to hitch our wagons to Gov. Palin just yet. I would like to see who is out there. With the current administration and congress, there are plenty of opportunities for a conservative leader to rise up. I’m not putting down Gov. Palin, I just think we can afford to wait and see who else is out there.
I was in Cobo Hall in Detroit at the Republican National Convention in 1980 when Reagan announced Bush as his VP choice. After he said, "George Bush," he was drowned out by cheering. However, I wasn't one of the cheerers. I felt even then that Reagan had selected a man who would eventually undo whatever he accomplished.
If Reagan had to have Bush as his VP, he should have groomed a successor, such as Jack Kemp, by giving him a prominet Cabinet position.
Wholeheartedly agree!!
McCain made the point that, althougfh the financial system got itself into a mess, the FUNDAMENTALS of the economy (the American work ethic, free enterprise, American innovation) were still strong.
McCain: Fundamentals are (still) strong
McCain had been championing for the reform of the reckless sub-prime lending practices for years and was correct in his observations. If McCain's warnings had been heeded before this sub-prime mess blew up, the sound FUNDAMENTALS of the American economy and a sound financial system would now still be working together to bring continued prosperity to America.
John McCain Warned Us About Fannie and Freddie
However, McCain was ridiculed for his statement by both the Left and the Right.
So, we now find ourselves with a Marxist groupie in the White House that is working hard to destroy the FUNDAMENTALS of the American economy with each passing day. The FUNADAMENTALS of the economy may never be strong again in our lifetimes.
We all know that the economy is crumbling. Of that there's no doubt. I personally have friends losing their jobs by the week and it's gotten to the point that I hardly ever open my email anymore because it's depressing seeing friends losing jobs (through no fault of their own) and not being in a position to help them.
But at some point, SOMEONE has to stop talking down the economy.
Obama has been talking down the economy for so long, including after his illegal ascension to the White House, that he seems to be "stuck on stupid" in that the only word that exits his piehole is "crisis" in describing the economy.
Now, I'm not in much of a position to give the Republican's advice. I'm a Conservative. I'm HARDCORE Conservative and I left the party back in 1990 after Bush #1 broke his promise not to raise taxes during that economic recession.
But if I were to give the Republican Party any sort of advice it would be this: stop talking the economy DOWN. Do not use the word "crisis" and stop comparing today to the depression. It's not the same thing fundamentally.
If we are on the virge of having another "Morning in America" then the Republican Party needs to link Obama to Carter. For example, "This is the worst economy since the Jimmy Carter recession.
That statement in fact, is true. We are on the virge of hyper-inflation with the way this administration has been printing up money and piling up debt.
Talking point #1: For all the Democrat's criticism's of Bush leaving a Trillion Dollar Deficit, the Obama Administration has more than DOUBLED it in his first 30 days in office. How did they do that? Expansion of Government spending programs and turning on the printing presses, just like the Carter years. Add it up: $787,000,000,000 in "Economic Screw-The-Rest-Of-Us" Government spending (aka: stealth reparations) + another $250,000,000,000 in "mortgage rescue" (aka: stealth reparations) means more than a TRILLION in Deficit Spending, and additional debt on our children and grandchildren. We haven't even added the approximately $350,000,000,000 to "fund" that debt, bringing the total up to about $1,400,000,000,000 (That's $1.4 trillion dollars) That's Generational THEFT.
Talking point #2: Anyone who's opened a credit card statement in the last month or so has seen their credit card rates skyrocket. I opened up my Capital One credit card statement yesterday and found that for "economic reasons" Capital One boosted my Platinum card rate from 7.9% to 17.9% even though my credit score is above 800 and I pay my bill IN FULL each month. That's double-digit inflation for credit card holders, and we haven't seen rates skyrocket like that since the Carter years. Millions of Capital One card holders got that notice this month from what I've read online, and other credit card companies are about to follow suit. (Watch out Bank of America and Chase card holders, you're next!) Funny thing is, Capital One received $3.5 BILLION in TARP funds, and went ahead and jacked up rates anyway. Talk about screwing their cardholders twice.
Talking Point #3: By the Democrat's own predictions, unemployment is going to reach approximately 10% before the economy gets any better. When is the last time we saw double-digit unemployment combined with double-digit inflation (and hyper-inflation?) That's right, it began in the Carter years.
I'm old enough to remember gas lines for blocks, double-digit mortgage rates, 18-20% CD rates, hyper-inflation and the creation of the "Misery Index" under the Carter Administration. I see so many parallels between today and the Carter Years it's downright scary.
Which brings me to talking point #4: IRAN. We had the hostage crisis under Jimmy Carter, in which 52 American's were held hostage by Iran for 444 days. It was only after Reagan was sworn into office that the Iranian's released the hostages, for fear of Ronald Wilson Reagan. Today, Iran is literally holding the United States and the rest of the world hostage with a rogue nuclear program, and stated intentions to "wipe Israel off the map." We are now seeing a member of the U.N. (Useless Nations in my book) threaten another member of the U.N. and ally of the United States with complete, total, nuclear destruction. The last time we saw this kind of brashness from Iran: This again smacks of the Carter Administration. Iran must be curtailed and stopped, which will not happen under a Democrat administration.
If the Republican's stick to the above four points and link Obama to Carter, I think they'd have a real chance of taking back the House in 2010. The Senate is very questionable due to the fact that the Republican's are still defending more seats than the Dem's in 2010. The Republican's first real chance to get the Senate back may be in 2012. Having said that, simply getting the House back may be enough to stall Obama until the 2012 elections --- if this country has that long.
Just my .02
Which really sucks since McCain NEVER SAID that the economy was "fundamentally sound".
McCain said that "the FUNDAMENTALS OF the economy ((the American work ethic, free enterprise, American innovation) were still strong."
McCain: Fundamentals of Economy Are Strong
See Post 24.
Maybe the comment defeated McCain because even our own side does not seem to be able to tell the difference between the plural noun "fundamentals" and the adverb "fundamentally" and then pulls phrases such as “fundamentally sound” out of thin air.
Maybe the comment defeated McCain because even our own side twists McCain's words around to claim that McCain said that the "economy is fundamentally sound", a ridiculous statement, instead of pointing out that McCain actually said that "the FUNDAMENTALS of the economy (the American work ethic, free enterprise, American innovation) are still strong", a true statement at the time it was said.
If the Financial Fairy waved her magic wand and changed the past so that the idiotic mortgages of the past six years had never been been issued and responsible businesses could still get business loans at the local bank, would our free enterprise American economy be healthy now?
If the answer to that question is "Yes", then McCain was correct, and the FUNDAMENTALS of the American economy were still strong at the time.
If the answer to that question is "No", then McCain was wrong and the fundamentals of the American economy such as free enterprise and innovation and private initiative needed to be replaced by socialist fundamentals as Obama is trying to do now.
But at some point, SOMEONE has to stop talking down the economy
That, as Hannity pointed out this week as he choked while praising the man, is Bill Clinton.
This isn't the worst economy since the Great Depression. By saying it is, it sends people into a panic state (for lack of a better term) because they don't have a reference point or 'memory' of the Depression. Fear of the unknown drives more fear. We have to connect the 'fear' to something more tangible that they can undrestand exactly the type of mess that we're in, and that in fact there is a way out of it. I use the Carter Presidency to demonstrate the mess.
What the majority of American's will have (at least those of us who were at least 10 years old when Carter first took office) is a direct memory of how bad the Carter Presidency was: Double-digit and hyper-inflation, the 'misery index', gasoline rationing, Carter on TV wearing a cardigan sweater telling people to 'turn their thermostats down' and the hostage crisis.
Those are the people that the message and the talking points I outlined were geared towards. That's the majority of the population whether they voted for Obama or not.
I've heard so many Obama voters express regret for voting for that POC, in that they said they didn't know what they were getting when they voted for him. Linking him to Carter is a way for them to visually connect for them exactly what they did. When I've used the 'talking points' I outlined in my post above, it's been a pretty powerful tool for people to connect the dots and understand exactly the mess we're in.
I think using Carter as a backdrop for Obama works. At least it has in the conversations I've had with Obama voters that actually do remember the Carter years. I think linking Carter and Obama together is a powerful weapon, and the GOP should do it. I really do. But then again, I'm not a member of the Republican Party and haven't been since 1990 so they're free to continue falling down the blackhole they have been since the 2006 elections.
Again, just my .02
"The worst economy since Jimmy Carter" is one of Hannity's favorite and most repeated talking points.
We need to send the optimistic message that our conservative fiscal principles *will* stimulate the economy *after* obama’s depressing Marxist economic superstitions send it tanking worse than it is now.
Damn, I really didn't know. In any case, I'm glad a Conservative with a mic and a big audience is getting that message out. (And I'm sincerely glad it isn't just me that thinks Obama = Carter.)
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