[Southack]

"Plus could you imagine what a primary would do if someone took him on and hit him on the issues we see posed here everyday (some have even been banned for it. Even El Rushbo would probably be at least put in time out periodically with his analysis of certain White House events and issues supported. Any reasonable candidate would have plenty to run against the president."

What are you smoking?!

The so-called "conservative" complaints against Bush all involve variations on the theme of either "spending too much" (mislabeled as "socialism" by the real hacks), signing a so-called "unconstitutional" Campaign Finance Reform bill, or not militarizing our border with Mexico to shoot illegals on sight.

Those aren't "conservative" issues so much as they are all themes of various levels of paranoid xenophobia and misguided interpretations of what precisely is and is not Constitutional (e.g. the Patriot Act is constitutional, and no one to date has shown a single sentence of its actual legal text that exceeds constitutional authority and mandates).

But that point aside, those certainly aren't positions that are even remotely popular. Of course, if your goal is to tear down the Republican Party for the next 8 years, while allowing Democrats to put into office for LIFE their choices of federal judges over that same time span, then such extremist positions are the ideal things to advocate.

[joesbucks]

A reasonable candidate could make issues of the economy, if it remains as it is currently with pink slips continuing, if there is the continuing drip, drip of deaths in Iraq, if there is not an end in sight in Iraq, IF the WMD issue has legs and yes, even spending. But as I said, even if there were no major issues, but a more palatable candidate than Bush was out there, they would pulled aside and told in very specific terms that to run would be destruction.

[Sabertooth]

The so-called "conservative" complaints against Bush all involve variations on the theme of either "spending too much" (mislabeled as "socialism" by the real hacks), signing a so-called "unconstitutional" Campaign Finance Reform bill, or not militarizing our border with Mexico to shoot illegals on sight.

Those aren't "conservative" issues so much as they are all themes of various levels of paranoid xenophobia and misguided interpretations of what precisely is and is not Constitutional (e.g. the Patriot Act is constitutional, and no one to date has shown a single sentence of its actual legal text that exceeds constitutional authority and mandates).

I think you're exaggerating your case in the first paragraph to the point of charicature.

Bush does spend too much. He's expanding government and proposing new programs far beyond the needs of the WoT and rebuilding the military. He's doing it at a faster rate than Clinton did, and he's doing it with with GOP Congress, which the last I heard, should be fiscally restrained... but they ain't.

CFR is, on it's face, unconstitutional. It only becomes muddied by the earlier Supreme Court decisions upholding the speech-restricting campaign reforms of the Watergate era. The rationale is that Bush didn't veto CFR because the SCOTUS was sure to strike it down, thereby taking a Democraty issue away. Two problems with that strategy... CFR never had political traction with the electorate, despite years of efforts by the Dems and the press to sell it; and nothing is ever a sure thing with the SCOTUS anyway. It's long past time that Bush vetoed something, and his hesitence to do so is ill-advised.

As for the borders, most people don't want to shoot illegals on sight. That's plain nonsense. In fact, most American from both parties have had quite enough of politicians coddling Illegals. That's an issue that naturally should cut for conservatives, if only our politicians had the sense and fortitude to uphold the laws of our land, in compliance with the wishes of the American people. Furthermore, making the Dems defend Illegals is a means by which Republicans can start to shake loose black votes from the Democrat coalition, as some of that captive constituency in the black economic underclass are hurt as much as anyone by the flood of Illegals at the entry rungs of the ladder of class mobility.

All of these issues are conservative issues, and I'm not certain how thinking otherwise does anything to help Republicans win elections, or make our country a better place.