When the anticipation of the upcoming election mixes with the sting of the last one those of us on the right can get uptight. Until this last weekend I was feeling better about the prospects of wrenching control of Congress from the Pelosi/Reid cabal. From much of what has come out of Republican circles I was confident the party had learned its lesson and was returning to its principles. Then came last Saturday.

I attended a meeting of a local Republican organization and heard a speech from the county Chairman of the party. Out of respect I will neither say what group nor identify the person. The problem was not the speaker nor the venue but the substance of what was said. Seldom have so many words been spoken with so little being said. The entire time was spent on a litany of charges against Barack Obama with the occasional back-handed jab at the Clintons; all of which were the same old screeds bouncing around the internet. While many of these charges are serious and should be investigated, this chance to motivate the grassroots was wasted with pointless tirades. There was nothing of substance to show what the party should do or what the GOP had to offer. This speech made me wonder if the GOP is reverting back to opposition party mentality as the anti-Obama party: “vote for us because we are not Barack Obama.” We saw this before when Bob Dole ran as the moral antithesis of Bill “Where’s my cigar” Clinton. This tactic never succeeds and if the GOP is going to adopt it then yet another election cycle will be lost.

Conservatives and libertarians in the GOP must lay out a plan. Running against Barack Obama will fail, while a workable plan with a definite direction is the road to success.