Barack Obama rode a mantra of “Hope” and “Change” into the Whitehouse. The Republican Party was disappointed by leaders infected with the neoconservative heresy. Eight years of majority dithered away as Republicans acted like Democrats to buy votes. Instead, they alienated their base, lost their majority along with the White House.
In 2008 the GOP ran a candidate ill equipped to inspire the base. While he could promise little more than four years of the same, Obama promised something different. Of course it would be different. He was using the word “Change,” wasn’t he? He said he would change things. Of course there was little said about what he would change beyond such bromides as “share the wealth” and “fairness.” His Senate record of voting “Present” was no help pointing out the direction he would take the country. Yet he was able to inspire people and assure them that he was the savior they had awaited for so long.
This election we have a chance to make real changes in Washington. We have the House already, and a Senate majority is within reach. Hopefully both will be dominated by rock-ribbed conservatives. The problem is our ticket for the White House. None of this lot really inspires the base, in general. Sure each has their supporters, but none seem able to coalesce the base into a political machine. Each will have to rely on a fear of four more years in the Obama wasteland to keep their detractors in check, pushing them to show up at the polls, nose held tightly to cast their ballot. But show up they must. This is because while there they will vote for something even more important than the butt parked in the Oval Office. Every member of Congress and 1/3 of the Senate are up to reelection. Remember, the House initiates all appropriations bills (they hold the checkbook) and the Senate must approve all court nominees and treaties (they hold the keys to our freedoms).
The most important thing the GOP candidate can do is motivate. Rather than running as the Anti-Obama, this person must run as America’s answer—inspiring hope. Ronald Reagan did not simply run against Carter. Yes, his quip about a recovery being defined as Jimmy Carter losing his job was funny and creative—and oh, so very true! However, he spent most of the time playing up America and the bright future that was ahead for her if only the people would put him in office. We had just ended the long bloody Vietnam conflict. Inflation was rampant, unemployment through the roof. Things were so bad that previous laws of economics were rewritten giving us the previously unknown “stagflation.” After Nixon’s shenanigans, Ford’s questionable pardon of him, and Carters general ineptitude, people had a deep distrust for politicians. Well guess who is back. We have Jimmy Carter the sequel. It is time to send this guy off into the private sector, once and for all. The way to do that is to take a play from the Gipper and inspire. Don’t play on our fears; draw from our hopes.
Mitt Romney has to be feeling a bit like the chunky kid in a neighborhood ballgame. You know the kid I’m talking about—the PC crowd would say he has a lot of heart, but he still gets picked last every time. In a field of his fellow Republicans, waiting to get picked for the team Mitt maintains his steady mid 20’s position, while watching others go from back of the pack to surge ahead of him. Michelle Bachman, Rick Perry, Herman Cain and now Newt Gingrich have all passed him up with the base of the GOP, only to be brought down by accusations or the unfortunate opening of their own mouths. Mitt must be getting the message by now. While a small field has decided that he is the best bet for beating Obama, most Republicans seem to be voting “anyone but Mitt.”
Somehow I’m having visions of 2008 all over again. It looks like, just like in 2008, we will have our candidate chosen by the media. Once he has secured the nomination the media will turn on him fiercely and protect their candidate Barack Obama. While current polls show Romney as a serious contender for Obama this lasts only until the media make him their favorite whipping boy. I know the party apparatchiks who support candidates like Romney expect us in the libertarian/ conservative camp to hold our nose and support the centrist candidate. I know the alternative, if we take our toys and go home, is four more years of economic lunacy and Chicago style politics; however, I want to ask, when will the GOP centrists hold their nose to support our candidate? I’ve been around long enough to know the answer to this involves a cold day in a hot place.
Joe Biden has been out of the house—the White House—and that’s never a good thing. Like the proverbial crazy relative kept out of view in the upper floor of a house, Joe should never be allowed to leave his White House office—at least until 2012 when America will hopefully return to sanity. The best way to secure this would be to brick over the door, leaving an opening just big enough to pass food and water. Unfortunately, no matter how much Obama would like to do this, he just can’t seem to give the order.
I suppose, in the future, when some upstart tyrant conquers his neighbors or kills off the minorities in his country, Europe will ride to the rescue with diplomats flocking to Brussels for help. Good! With Brussels firmly in control, the American military can be brought home from bases around the world. Finally, no longer needing a military, we can sit back and complain about Brussels. Then we, the greatest super-power on earth can finally become Canada.
Let’s consider the history of the US and Brussels for a moment to see who truly deserves this title. Only one look is needed. During WWII, when both nations (the US and Belgium) were involved in resisting Fascism, the US dashed her own sons against the walls of Fortress Europe to overthrow Hitler and liberate a continent. But what was Belgium doing? What is the best way to describe Belgium’s part in that fight for freedom? It is a single word, just on the tip of my tongue. Oh, that’s right, the word is “surrender.” Sorry Brussels, but you’ll have to do a bit more than rent space to some foreign agencies and make waffles to be the Capital of the Free World—keep up the waffles though.
Somebody grab Joe and muzzle him again. Perhaps he should follow the practice of his boss and stick to the teleprompter.
Yesterday a miracle happened. No, a lion did not lie down with a lamb, the lame did not walk and neither did the blind see. Instead, a miracle of an unprecedented magnitude happened in the state of Massachusetts. A Republican was elected to fill the seat of Teddy “One-for-the-Road” Kennedy. To say that the left is in shock is an understatement.
The question I ask coming out of this election is how will the GOP read it? The election was spun by the left as a referendum on healthcare and that is exactly what won it for Brown. The people of Massachusetts came out in droves to vote against Obama’s plans to extend control over 1/7th of the US economy in the guise of healthcare reform. GOP leadership is of course ecstatic over the victory and they should be (heaven knows it’s been a while since good news involved the GOP). The danger to those of us who value freedom is a misread of Brown’s victory by party elites.
If party leadership reads this victory to mean people are so fed up with the Democrats they will vote for anyone wearing the Republican moniker the potential for big wins in 2010 will be lost. The Republican Party lost big in the last round, not because the country had shifted left, but because the Republican Party had shifted left. Under Bush it was hard to tell a Republican voting record from a Democratic one. Keynesian deficit spending alongside rampant Congressional corruption and moral turpitude produced a perfect storm for the left. The left won because the right stayed home.
It may be possible for the GOP to go one cycle or perhaps two with the old practice of running RINOs and Rockefeller Republicans. It is possible the electorate, shocked by the abuses of a strong Democratic majority, will vote for any elephant walking down the street, but this will not last long. Unless the party of Reagan returns to its base it will find itself exiled from power again and again. If this happens it is not the Republican leaders who will suffer but the American people who are forced to watch more and more of their freedoms wheedled away by misguided apparatchiks.
Like many liberals President Obama places too much stock in his own plans and places way too little in the American people. America has created more wealth, freed more people, and overthrown more tyrants than any other nation to ever exist. Amazingly, this was all done without Barrack Obama as president.
On December 16, our president told ABC news that if his healthcare plan is not passed America will go bankrupt. Whatever happened to Mr. “Yes we can.” The reason for his dire projection is Medicare and Medicaid spending. Mr. Obama proposes that we transfer these broken programs into a new program that will oversee the healthcare of all Americans, claiming this as the only way to keep down costs. We remember all the government programs that so effectively kept down costs in the past. There was . . . well . . . what about . . . perhaps . . . Ok, so no government program has kept down costs. Instead, the record of bureaucracies is out of control spending and poor service. This means the president of this country claims that unless we spend more government money and interfere in the lives of more Americans the United States in doomed and the federal government will go bankrupt.
This president has shown he has a very limited play book. When attacked, use the race card. When overcome with bad press, take action to distract the media. When optimism fails, switch to fear. What this country cannot afford is more of Barrack Obama’s good-money-after-bad policies. Whether it’s healthcare, bailouts or ‘stimulus’ checks, all he offers is more of the same—freedom is bad, government is good, responsibility is to be avoided.
The latest evolution of the health care monstrosity slinking through the Capital is just as dangerous as earlier versions. The House is considering a version that would supposedly allow doctors to negotiate prices with the government instead of the earlier plans that included set prices that amounted to price controls.
Price controls are a problem because they are historically unrealistic and, over the long run, produce shortages. When a company is forced to sell an item at a price below the cost of production, distribution, and profit they stop producing—resulting in a shortage. Price controls also cause shortages through overconsumption. Thomas Sowell in Basic Economics (pg 29) tells of wealthy people who did not even live in the city holding on to apartments covered under New York’s rent control laws. This reduced the number of apartments available for the poor who were supposed to benefit from the laws.
When one of the agents is the government, negotiated prices are price controls with a less offensive name. Control is negative and implies a use of force. Negotiation sounds warm and fuzzy, sitting down over coffee and biscotti, and seeking what is best for both parties. In order for a negotiation to be effective, and balanced, each must have something to offer and negotiate from an equal footing. When one agent is far more powerful than the other, negotiation quickly gives way to demand. How is anyone, other than a separate sovereign nation, to negotiate with the US government? This is not possible because the government will set the terms of the negotiation. This will quickly degenerate to hidden price controls along with the resulting shortages.
What our healthcare system needs is a healthy dose of free market economics. Our system has been under the boot of big government for too long; Mr. Obama and his cronies in the Congress want us to believe the solution is adding the other boot.
That’s right. The White House has declared war against Fox news. Why? Fox News broadcasts the opposing view. In other words they practice journalism. I would not be so naive to say that Fox new is always unbiased. They have commentators who regularly speak against the left, just like CNN does. The problem is that the Obama administration loves CNN and MSNBC because the love is returned. These two stations have been in a love fest with this administration long before Obama was sworn in. Of course, MSNBC is the worst of the two. If they didn’t occasionally broadcast the weather MSNBC could not even be called a news station. CNN, formerly the Clinton New Network and now in the thralls of Obama, has yet to air a story in any way negative of the new president.
The First Amendment was not put in place to protect the government’s mouthpiece but to protect those who would speak against the government so that the people will hear more than the official side. This role has fallen to Fox News, the only station following its First Amendment mandate.
What can the left do when their president slips in the polls daily? President Obama has failed miserably at everything he has done so far. He has not ended the Iraq war as he said he would. He will not be able to close Guantanamo as promised. He has not stopped the Iranian nuclear program. He has alienated friends and cuddled up to enemies and terrorists. He has spent the nation into a record debt, likes of which our nation has never seen. He has handled over the reins of his office to self avowed Communists and America haters. He tried to put his own people in charge of the Census. He has meddled in the finance industry and GMC, seizing control of huge swaths of the economy. Then there is of course healthcare, and his related failures there.
So how is the left to rehabilitate this president’s ratings and raise his poll numbers? Simple, give him the Nobel Peace Prize—no need to produce peace or even move towards it. Of course the prize has nothing to do with producing peace—remember Jimmy Carter won it. It has more to do with making political statements and influencing public opinion. The Nobel Committee is the new PR department of Obama political machine. Do you hear that whirring sound? It’s Alfred Nobel spinning in his grave.
