[winin2000]

A little perspective, folks: this jackass Judis penned an article in the heat of the 1992 election, where Bush Sr. was trailing badly in the polls and Clinton's victory looked imminent, titled, "The End of Conservatism." It droned on about the intellectual emptiness and exaustion of the conservative movement and the coming long era of Democratic dominance.

He has gone on to produce articles essentially saying the 1994 elections meant nothing, the 1998 elections were the final and definite presage of GOP decline, and a memorable one days before the 2000 election, with Gore trailing in every poll, titled, "Dubya Can't Stop the Emerging Democratic Majority." Just so you know the kind of partisan hack we're dealing with.

I am willing to cede to Judis a couple of points: yes, there has been a perceptible move to the left in affluent suburbs, and, yes, the GOP is committing short-term political suicide if it doesn't discontinue the Democratic Voter Recruitment program known as our immigration policy.

But to write one absurdly bullish piece for Democrats after another, while completely ignoring his favored party's own problems in "Red" America, is the stuff of DNC staffers, not someone who fancies themselves as a serious political analyst.

For example, to call Illinois, a state Bush Sr. carried by a whopping 3 points in '88, a "swing" state, is preposterous and Judis knows it. There are simply some states that have huge political divides in their state and national elections. Yes, Illinois had a long string of GOP governors; but my state of Georgia, absent the "home state" bias for Jimmy Carter, has been reliably Republican in nearly every Presidential election in the past thirty years, and we still have yet to elect a GOP governor since reconstruction!

With a little fine-tuning, along with some serious immigration reform, the Republicans will do just fine.

[a_witness]

The demise of the Republican Party, should it occur, will be because of Bush's moderation. No party should survive in power if it fails to wage a vigorous and successful war to total victory after an attack on our capital. The world should be trembling not mocking.

[WFTR]

Your analysis of this idiot's commentary is right. Liberals will always claim that conservatives can't win except by being liberal. They deserve no credibility for making this claim. The facts are different.

New Jersey is a liberal state. I'm not surprised that a conservative didn't win there, but that doesn't make running a conservative the wrong thing to do. If we want New Jersey to go from the wrong direction to the right direction, we have to offer them candidates who are going in the right direction.

In Virginia, the Democrat won by being more conservative. People in Virginia will vote for a Democrat if he isn't too liberal, and the guy who won there followed that strategy.

A conservative hasn't won a statewide election in California is over ten years. If Mr. Simon loses, it will be because he is a conservative in a liberal state. However, offering voters another liberal isn't what California needs. If it is to move forward, California needs someone willing to steer it forward.

WFTR
Bill