That was a very interesting blog piece which you cited. I thought the comments were illuminating especially those of the liberal who reversed the facts about Governor Blanco during Katrina and accused Bush of undercutting Nagin and Blanco. If Bush had only fought his corner liberals would not have such an open season for standing truth on its head.
With respect to the blog piece itself, I think it largely is in agreement with what I said. I was thinking prospectively and the blogger has the voter thinking retrospectively. The conventional wisdom is that voters are always looking forward but I am inclined to think that the lessons of Carter and Bush and Hoover are that the way a democracy works is that the voters punish failure and keep the ship of state tacking between mistakes.
In any event, we need not give up our principles, we must somewhere find the gumption to fight for them and we must learn to do so with humor and vigor.
One last thought. I think it is important that we do not confuse a search for bedrock principles with a talent search. Unlike Christianity, our solution is not a person but a philosophy. The man will emerge who has a message.
“The conventional wisdom is that voters are always looking forward but I am inclined to think that the lessons of Carter and Bush and Hoover are that the way a democracy works is that the voters punish failure and keep the ship of state tacking between mistakes.”
Yes they do. Clearly, this is why the experience issue didnt work against Obama, and the McCain=Bush did. People were being told ‘you dont know what obama will do’ and obama’s retort was ‘ it cant be worse than what we have now’.
“One last thought. I think it is important that we do not confuse a search for bedrock principles with a talent search. Unlike Christianity, our solution is not a person but a philosophy. The man will emerge who has a message.”
YES!
That’s why I think the 2012 chatter is pointless. The drivers in the next 24 months are the agenda challenges we face from the onslaught of Obama’s liberalism. If we are smart, we will focus on debunking and slowing down the Obama agenda, picking it apart piece by piece and/or exposing its dangerous elements as the Democrats ram it through.
Use the Obama agenda as way to frame our principles and agenda against his.