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The Battle for the GOP Is On - Palin, Romney or JindalNovember 30th, 2008 By: Michael van der Galien | Tags: Leave a comment | Trackback The latest polls of Republican and all voters indicate that the conservative Republican base favors candidates voters in general do not think too highly of. For instance, 24.4% Republican voters want Governor Sarah Palin to be the Republican candidate for president in 2012. Only 13.4% of all voters agree. At the same time, Governor Mitt Romney ranks second among all voters, six points behind Palin, but leads among all voters (be it barely). Among...

As Republicans sort out the reasons for their defeat, they likely will overlook or dismiss the gorilla in the pulpit. Three little letters, great big problem: G-O-D. I'm bathing in holy water as I type. To be more specific, the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn't soon cometh. Simply put: Armband religion is killing the Republican Party. And, the truth -- as long as we're setting ourselves free -- is that if one were to eavesdrop on private conversations among...

Door, meet Hagel. That's how many Republicans are likely to react after the retiring Nebraska senator blasted Republicans in general and Rush Limbaugh in particular, claiming Rush and fellow conservative talkers "don't have any answers." David Shuster, subbing for Olbermann on tonight's Countdown, highlighted Hagel's remarks of today. View video here.

In the aftermath of the 2008 Republican electoral bloodbath, many are discussing what direction the party should take to recapture its vitality and viability. Liberals -- as if they have the best interests of the GOP at heart -- and so-called elitist, Northeastern Republicans seem to agree the party should tack center. I disagree. Traditional conservatism and its advocates invariably get bad raps. They're painted as uncompromising, uncompassionate extremists who won't adjust to the realities of the 21st century. But those familiar with modern history understand that these intramural debates have been going on for decades. I remember my father...

In a span of 252 days, the National Review lost two Buckleys — one to death, another to resignation — and an election. Now, thanks to the coarsening effect of the Internet on political discourse, the magazine may have lost something else: its reputation as the cradle for conservative intellectuals and home for erudite and well-mannered debate prized by its founder, the late William F. Buckley Jr. In the general conservative blogosphere and in The Corner, National Review’s popular blog, the tenor of debate — particularly as it related to the fitness of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska to be...

Pawlenty in Miami was publicly angry, agitated, and even cranky, possibly because he found himself at odds with the far more conservative tone of every other speaker here. Hundreds of RGA members, who paid thousands of dollars to attend this Conference, wildly applauded “red meat” conservative pronouncements by speakers and not the more moderate and conservative-jabbing words by Pawlenty. And then there’s his “Palin problem,” real or imagined, that hit the fan yesterday in front of the national media, possibly upon the insistence of Pawlenty himself, as the above-reported comments to CNN by an anonymous presidential aspirant indicate.

I just saw a disturbing guest on the "O'Reilly Factor." Margaret Hoover, a supposed "Republican Strategist," was blathering on about how young people "get it" about "gay marriage" and "women's reproductive rights." Proposition 8 may have passed, she argued, but the kids of her generation will overturn it. Disturbing, indeed, if she represents the future of the GOP: a quick web search will reveal that she is quite a hyped-up figure, given that her great-great-grandaddy was Herbert Hoover. The lefties are all saying that we need to pay attention to her. Precisely the reason that she needs to be shamed...

Republicans sent out an SOS in hopes of lifting the fortunes of a party that suffered a political shipwreck. The RNC launched a Web site - Republicanforareason.com - to gather advice on the best way to plot its comeback...... "We need to hear what our volunteers, activists, elected leaders, and party members think about the Republican Party as we renew our bond with the American people," said RNC chairman Mike Duncan......a video featured on the Web site waxes nostalgic by providing footage of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and outgoing President Bush. The video does not mention John McCain......

Did the choice of Sarah Palin show a strong, sober mind?

WASHINGTON -- By midnight Tuesday, millions of conservatives probably will believe that the nation, foundering on the reefs of sin, is ruined. And millions of "progressives," emboldened to embrace truth in labeling by again calling themselves liberals, probably will have decided that Heaven is at hand, the nation revived like a flower in an April shower. In any case, political numeracy can illuminate the hours before midnight. So as Tuesday's numbers accumulate, here are some benchmarks to bear in mind: The House of Representatives currently has 235 Democrats and 199 Republicans; the Senate has 51 Democrats (including two independents who...

Professor Charles Fried, an advisor to John McCain's presidential campaign, has announced that he can no longer support the McCain/Palin ticket. In a letter to the general counsel to the McCain/Palin campaign, he cited McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate as too dangerous "at a time of deep national crisis", and has asked for his name to be removed from several campaign committees on which he has served. Fried also publicly stated that he had voted for Obama via absentee ballot. Fried later clarified to The New Republic that he had voted for Obama because he no...

The case for Barack Obama, in broad strokes: He has within him the possibility to change the direction and tone of American foreign policy, which need changing; his rise will serve as a practical rebuke to the past five years, which need rebuking; his victory would provide a fresh start in a nation in which a fresh start would come as a national relief. He climbed steep stairs, born off the continent with no father to guide, a dreamy, abandoning mother, mixed race, no connections. Obama and the Runaway Train The race, the case, a hope for grace. He rose...

Ms. Palin has emerged as a flash point for a split dividing talk-radio populists and conservative traditionalists from some of their former intellectual allies at National Review and the Heritage Foundation. “These are the people who are embarrassed by Sarah Palin,” Rush Limbaugh recently declared on his radio program, pointedly criticizing several columnists by name, “ ’cause she’s not an intellectual and she didn’t go to Harvard or have a college degree from approved universities and she drops her g’s from words like ‘morning’ and says ‘mornin’.” One of the columnists, David Frum, fired back on National Review’s Web site....

It looks like there might be some truth to those rumors former Mitt Romney supporters are already trying to clear Sarah Palin from the GOP presidential deck to make room for their man Mitt in 2012. Former Romney Spokesman Kevin Madden was particularly harsh on Palin in an interview on CNN. His criticism of Palin is especially noteworthy because we're only days from the election. In a spot with Campbell Brown Madden said Palin's wardrobe flap showed how "unseasoned" Palin is. BROWN: And, Kevin, even defending this whole controversy over the clothes, the RNC buying all the clothing, it keeps...

My husband called it first. Then, a brilliant, 75-year-old scholar confessed to me over wine: “I’m sexually attracted to her. I don’t care that she knows nothing.” There can be no denying that McCain’s selection of her over others far more qualified —— suggests other factors at work. His judgment may have been clouded by ... what? Science provides clues. A study in Canada, published in New Scientist in 2003, found that pretty women foil men’s ability to assess the future. “Discounting the future,” as the condition is called, means preferring immediate, lesser rewards to greater rewards in the future....

... Sarah Palin is in revolt, it’s reported, angry that John McCain’s handlers forced her to wear haute couture; that she’s not been able to be herself before the media; and that Republican campaign strategy -- like the decision to give up on Michigan -- is askew. .... It's all about the political makeover of the Republican Party’s new great hope. For many senior Republicans, Obama appears sure to prevail Nov. 4 ... Advice is already incoming: She should at all costs avoid running for Congress, writes Ron Bonjean, former communications director for Speaker Dennis Hastert and Senate majority leader...

Some aides to Sen. John McCain say they weren't happy that running mate Sarah Palin went off script Sunday...Palin deviated from her prepared remarks to talk about her wardrobe controversy Sunday. ... A senior McCain adviser told CNN those comments "were not the remarks we sent to her plane." ...A Palin aide said that the governor clearly felt like she had to say something to defend herself, because "that's really not who she is." ... sources told CNN that long-brewing tensions between Palin and key aides to McCain were on the rise. McCain advisers suggested that they have become increasingly...

I've had enough, after watching Gerry Rivers of all people, an inveterate Obama fan, throw dirt on McCain/Palin, I think the list of traiterous Republicans otherwise known as Vichy Republicans should be assembled before the election.

Former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president yesterday, citing Obama’s “deep sense of calm” and “first-class political temperament.” Weld, a Republican, said he has never endorsed a Democrat for president before, but in the last six weeks or so, it became “close to a no-brainer.” Obama has a history of bringing Democrats, Republicans and independents together and is the best choice at a time when America’s standing in the world is at a low point, he said. “It’s not often you get a guy with his combination of qualities, chief among which I would say is...

Contrarian that I am, I'm voting for John McCain. I'm not talking about bucking the polls or the media consensus that it's over before it's over. I'm talking about bucking the rush of wet-fingered conservatives leaping to Barack Obama before they're left out in the cold without a single state dinner for the next four years. I stand athwart the rush of conservative ship-jumpers of every stripe — neo (Ken Adelman), moderate (Colin Powell), genetic/ironic (Christopher Buckley) and socialist/atheist (Christopher Hitchens) — yelling "Stop!" I shall have no part of this motley crew. I will go down with the McCain...