Posted on 11/10/2006 5:33:32 PM PST by Pokey78
1. It has to rain sometime.
Some people seem to believe that their party could and should stay in power forever, always holding all branches of government, and that any loss any time is inexcusable, and always is somebody's fault. This is insanity. No party has enough of the people, or enough of the truth, to make this sustainable: The system is built around balance of power, frequent reverses, enforced House cleanings, and changes in tone. As David Brooks notes, lack of power corrupts absolutely. In the 1950's, having lost the White House for five elections running, Republicans produced Joe McCarthy. In the past decade, Democrats lost Congress and some very tight races, and produced Michael Moore. Few conservatives are morose at the loss of the House, which ought to flip every decade for reasons of hygiene. Turn the rascals out, and bring in new rascals. And then throw the new rascals out.
2. If it has to rain sometime, let it rain now.
If you must have a bloodletting--and most presidents need one--this is the time for it. Better now than 2002, which was still the beginning; better now than 2004, which was presidential; better now than two years from now, which is presidential again. Let the Democrats vent, relish their triumph, and blow off some of the steam that would have exploded in 2008. Actually, this result drains the left of one of the big advantages held by the out-party after eight years of other-side dominance: the natural hunger for change. A centrist conservative who is stylistically different from Bush now has a better chance in '08, as a change from both the president, and from a left that is bound to pick up some baggage. Some of its chairs are accidents waiting to happen, and the strains in its caucus are evident. Will it be beloved by the '08 election? We'll see.
3. Adversity Rocks.
Sometimes, good outcomes can be too rich for one's health. In 1992 and 2004, two bright politicians named Bill Clinton and George W. Bush won big elections, carried both houses of Congress, and were hailed far and wide as political geniuses who had cemented the gains of their parties for the next generation. Both proceeded at once to take leave of their senses, and had their rears kicked hard two years later. As it turns out, people work well on a short leash under pressure, when they are aware they are being watched constantly, and know an opposition nearly at parity is well-poised to strike. The Republican Congress was the making of Clinton, who became so great on defense that people forgot he was a klutz when on the offensive, and Bush gained his reputation as a political wizard in a come-from-behind race against Governor Ann Richards; when facing Democratic control back in Austin, and governing in Washington on a razor-thin margin, after losing the popular vote. Bush has got to get back to the agile politician that he was when he was fighting adversity. It's not as if he doesn't know how.
4. This is still, after all, a center-right country.
The old allocation of conservative-moderate-liberal seems to have changed not a bit.
5. Iraq?
If Iraq is the killer they think it is, why did Ned Lamont lose 60-40 to two 'war' candidates in sky-blue Connecticut ; and why do McCain and Guiliani, two of the biggest hawks in the country, lead all comers in 2008 polls?
6. 'The conservative movement is dead!'
Not even Rasputin has died so many times as the modern conservative movement, which has been dying since mere moments after its birth. It first died in the 1982 midterms; it died a second time with Iran-Contra; a third time in 1992, when Bush pere lost to Bill Clinton; again in 1996, and after the 1998 midterms; a fifth time during the Florida recount, and now, wouldn't you know it, the damned thing is dying again. Of course, this time it IS dead, but, but they said that the last time, and all the times previous. It has been shot, strangled, stabbed, beaten, stomped on, had its hands cuffed and been tossed into the Neva River, and, sure enough, a short time later, is rising up with a grin. And it will again.
Noemie Emery is a contributing editor to THE WEEKLY STANDARD and the author of the forthcoming Great Expectations: The Troubled Lives of Political Families (Wiley).
Oh, horseh*t. Just come out and say McCain.
This writer piles it up so fast you need wings to stay above it.
I also don't see a peep about amnesty and it's effects on the political mix. Hmmm.
... 7) Freepers will start kickin' butt again! (Remember the "Freeper Air Force"?)
It may be about the party, but I doubt it. If Baker gives us a method out of Iraq, getting out will be construed as a defeat for the USA. We may have lost more than the election. In short, we will have turned over the life blood of Western civilization to Iran. Iraq cannot defend itself and I am not sure it wants to now that it is predominently Shia. If we leave the sunni will have their heads drilled by their friendly Shia neighbors. We will lose presence in the middle east and a potential balance to Iran (although I wonder with the Shia in charge if they would ever oppose Iran). Now with Nancy in charge, we can say "let the genocide begin" as they follow their Vietnam formula for foreign policy and that will only be the beginning of troubles for the USA. The level of brutality we needed in Iraq to properly pacify that land is something you cannot gin up in our PC environment. The Army makes a lousy police force.
You just aren't going to see that massive cross party voting anytime else, unless Micheal Moore happens to be running in an area where no member of the GOP can aspire to a higher office than municipal trash collector.
We have only one hold card, the Israeli nuclear inventory. Under the demoncrats the US will be unable to project power once the military is sufficiently weakened by our "can we all just get a long friends, like Dingy Harry".
HAVE ANOTHER GLASS OF KOOL AID AND CALL THE MORTICIAN IN THE MORNING!!!
Didn't bother to read this.
All I needed to know about the elections and who is now in(scarry and disastrous) power, I learned back in the early 70's after serving in Nam for 18 months and seeing how they (the same LEFTIST-SOCIALIST-BLAME-HATE-AMERICA-Party and Mindset) stabbed the S. Vietnamese (as well as 2 1/3 million Nam Vets) in the back.
THEY ARE ALL:
They kicked Lieberman and he wants more. What a idiot that guy is. He runs right back to the guys that beat him up.
They do love their genocides..
What a dumn-ass article. Trying to pretty up a pig. It was a wuppin' and our boys got spanked. Now its time to regroup and fight back.
the sears tower is an eyesore anyway.
Today we read about what they are FOR. And this is only the beginning. It's going to get a whole lot worse.
Here is the positive I see .. if they do what they say they are going to do .. they are going to loe in 2008. Problem is who is going to run as a Republican? I would have to hold my nose to vote for McCain. I would though. I would do that before I allowed my lack of voting get us Hillary.
No one has to guess or try to figure out why voters voted as they did -- Given That They Told Us In The Exit Polls What Determined Their Vote.
Why are people burning up time trying to deduce something that there is numerical data on. The #1 reason was corruption scandals.
Not abortion. Not immigration. Not the economy and NOT IRAQ.
The data is on record. It is clear. It doesn't need analysis.
It was corruption scandals. Get squeaky clean candidates with no change of philosophy at all and in 2008, those seats become GOP again.
Harry Reid talked today about checks and balances. I wonder if believes the Reps should win the Presidency in 2008, since the Dems now control Congress. This is all crap and rationalization. If the Reps think that this can be easily reversed, they are in for a rude awakening.
Musta been a misprint. Rudi and Johnny McScream: RINOs extreme.
No, the press screamed long enough, and as a rule the people demand not "steadfast policy" but achieved victory.
Our enemies know how to read it. America can fight for 2 years, America can occasionally fight for 4 years, but under no circumstances even with the greatest odds and the lowest losses can America fight for 6 years.
They now have our number, and they will proceed to ring us like a bell.
Watch, grasshopper.
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