Posted on 11/05/2008 1:23:02 PM PST by truthandlife
Radio host Rush Limbaugh, the loudest conservative voice in American politics , today blasted John McCain's presidential campaign as weak and said Barack Obama's election as president is an opportunity to purge the Republican Party of candidates who abandon conservative principles.
"McCain's whole campaign was a concession speech," said Limbaugh in his post-election analysis. "We've now demonstrated to everyone how to lose."
Limbaugh dismissed any notion that victories by Democrats in the White House and Congress meant a repudiation of right-leaning principles.
Limbaugh explained conservatism was not on the ballot.
"We haven't been on the ballot since 1994," he said, noting that if Republicans wanted to win elections, they should not put so-called "moderates" on the ballot.
"The conservative movement does not need to be rebuilt," he said. "We had some people abandon the conservative movement, and they need to be abandoned."
The broadcaster called last night's results "an opportunity for cleansing ... like we haven't seen in a long time."
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...
McCain reaped what he has been sowing for several years!
That is why conservative pundits and pols need to call out centrists and GOP RINO pundits and phonies like Barnes, Noonan, and the rest of the Beltway Elites. Screw them and their two-faced hypocrisy.
All these people are good for is front-running, pandering, and second-guessing Reagan-conservatives. Let's jamb their phony quivering feckless @sses to the back of of the bus.
BTTT!
Yeah - how 'bout that??
Funny how the GOP RINO Elites fear Palin more than do the liberals....
But we are coming....and coming...and in a few years the momentum will change and the RINOs will be back where they belong - in a Port-A-John just outsidse the GOP 'Big Tent.'
HEAR HEAR!!
I truly believe that you believe we’re having a meaningful if intermittent conversation.
My original post on this issue agreed with Rush on “cleansing the Party” you felt that this type of talk was self-defeating; that both parties have continuums and we should strive to attract more to our side. All well and good and we should indeed strive harder.
When I posted the news that Landrieu won in part due to moderates who also supported McCain, and asked how you would attract them to our side, you responded with “A little test...are you a moderate conservative or an extreme conservative? If you are a Dem, are you a commie or a commie?”
Did you mean that Conservatives range from A to B while Democrats range from a tyrannical Z to Z?
When I again asked my original question, you replied with “You see...that’s the point...they are already attached, unless you want to alienate about 75% of the base. Most people are not extreme in the political realm.”
Now, with all due respect, this seems tangential. Or, perhaps I really do not see the point as you express it.
Some where in all of this, I believe I made a point that Democrats seem to be able to maintain and enforce cohesion to a specific set of principles and behavior without appreciably damaging their base and without appreciably limiting an expanding appeal. This translates into a globally unified message and, despite abysmal approval ratings, consistent wins in elections.
Are you saying that this won’t work for Republicans and that we should continue to pursue the “big tent” approach with its necessarily concomitant change in principles and message that has not served us well in 2006 and 2008?
Agreed. Grass roots is critical.
I went to the new Republican headquarters that opened up recently in a town nearby. The Grand Opening was publicized. The whole room was full of elderly women running the thing like a potluck. I’m in my 50’s and I felt like a spring chicken in that room. Sign up sheets were handwritten and taped to the walls. No one made an effort to talk to me. There was no itinerary posted and no one made an introductory statement about how the opening was going to be structured. After a half hour, I drifted away with my delightful baked goods.
Had any young, energetic, enthusiastic young people come to get involved, they would have escaped as fast as they could. It was like “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane” in there.
We’ve got to build an organization that pulls in young and idealistic voters. I was so excited they were opening that headquarters and so ready to give. I was really put off by the lack of organization and energy in that room. We all want to feel like we are part of a big, well organized, smoothly running machine. Seriously, the old guard needs to find some bright, young Republicans and mentor them. Show them how to take the reins and then let the young take the reins.
My most important point: we need to find the bright, young, heartbroken Republicans now and bring them along. They were really swimming against the tide and they need to know the Party cares about what happened to them.
That’s why I quit listening to Rush in 2006. I have listened some for the past few weeks, but I don’t find him that interesting any more. He surely carried water for GWB and the RNC way too long. We might have impacted GWB’s weak performance if Rush had broken with him in 2005.
Damn right. And we can start with the cretins who said "you go right ahead and hold onto your precious principles!"
In the absense of seeing the intelligence that Mr. Bush acted on, I would personally hesitate to second guess that decision.
Lots of mistakes were made for sure, many having little to do with the war in Iraq. At the very top of that list I would place the hesitancy Bush and McCain both share in aggressively defining and defending their own positions. We've all watched for years as Bush absorbed shots from the left and from the media that he did not need to absorb and having them repeated over and over without a defense offered had the effect of convincing the public the things the left were saying might have a ring of truth.
Second on that list (although perhaps it should be at the top) was a serious lack of any core conservative belief system (from both Bush and McCain). Bush's nomination of Harriet Myers and both of them on immigration were very damaging examples.
Actually I think Rush said it best when he talks about how the GOP and many who believe themselves to be conservative allow the left to define the debate and we lend credence to preposterous assumptions by debating on their terms.... when we validate certain issues by arguing from the left.... Global Warming for example... by debating over the finer details of how to alter carbon emmissions without ever questioning the true and scientific impact of C02 on any atmospheric temperature shifts.
I could go on but you see my point. "The War" was made an issue because Bush, McCain and many other so called "conservatives" didn't stand firm and defend the positions for why were we went in and why we're never leaving completely. It's time for this wishy washy version of "conservatism" to be replaced by the real thing. Win or lose, we need to be true to the issues and lead with conviction.
If the voters continue to reject that approach, they deserve the government they get.
'... and that's all I have to say about that '
Okay this is the phrase i keep hearing pfft that can't happen here. This is america. People are very naive and i don't think they have any idea thats what they voted for.
“We had some people abandon the conservative movement, and they need to be abandoned.”
***Starting right here on Free Republic.
I listened to radio hosts for their reactions to Obama victory.
Mike Gallagher: He said that sometimes a team loses a game...He was still annoyed with some Republicans who endorsed Obama.
Laura Ingraham: She said that a moderate should not be nominated again...Laura also said something about Bush Admin screwing up Katrina affair. What is she talking about? I do like Laura but...
Medved: He was critical of McCain for not being consistent in his messages...Experience? Reformer? Foreign policy? Medved thought that Obama’s message, “hope and change”, was silly but effective.
Medved mentioned that 89% of Dem voters backed Obama...McCain got 90% of GOP voters. However, Obama won 60% of independents or “moderates”.
Like Limbaugh, I don’t like “moderates”. However, they will always exist.
Larry Elder: He spent most of his show talking about two other radio hosts on KABC. Elder was at a round table with Al Rantal and Doug McIntyre on Election Night.
He was puzzled about Rantal and McIntyre voting for Obama. Elder wondered if Rantal and McIntyre really believed in conservative ideas.
On the election night, McIntyre complained that his relative has difficulty getting his prescription medicine.
Elder wondered if the government was responsible for solving that problem...
Elder thought that McIntyre should have voted for a third-party candidate or sit out the election...
McIntyre called in and explained his reasoning...He wanted to punish GOP for not being consistently conservative.
By the way, McIntyre has called Bush presidency a “disaster”. Rantal frequently speaks to former GOP congressman John Leboutier(spelling?). Congressman John accused Bush Admin of exaggerating Iraqi threat. He also speculated that Bush still had some drinking problem.
I have been listening to McIntyre and Rantal less frequently...
Hugh Hewitt: Spoke to some guests about how GOP could get the Hispanic vote...
OK...I think that maybe many Hispanic voters liked Obama’s proposed govt programs...
Michael Savage: He wondered maybe Obama would govern like a centrist...Savage was critical of McCain for picking someone inexperienced like Palin...
It's time to hold it's wake and move on. It's now to form an actual functional opposing new political party. No Big Tents for see sawing Centerist, No Rockefeller Republican Liberals, but a honest to goodness Constitution Conservative Based Party of which the GOP never was to start with.
That is true, I think the open primaries idea is a disaster. By the time Texas got to vote McCain was a done deal. Why not change the order the states vote in also? I don’t see why states like Iowa and New Hampshire should get first say in every election.
He has been saying for quite a while that there is no elcted conservative leadership in Washington. I have heard him say it myself many times.
I cannot remember when I have ever agreed less with anything I have read.
I gave you my views on Huckabee. It is okay for you to disagree with me.
I agree. I’m in Ohio, and my candidate was out after South Carolina. How is that fair? But that’s not the GOP’s doing. The Democrats do the same. The system is broke. It needs to be fix.
Well you keep spewing that. I’m sure it gives you some comfort. The fact is... in the primaries, McCain received more votes than Romney, Guiliani, Thompson, Huckabee, Hunter, et al. That’s why he was the nominee. Unless the GOP hypnotized the voters in New Hampshire, South Carolina, and those states voting on Super Tuesday, McCain was the nominee because the people preferred him.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.