Eating Crow, and Then Crowing

The American Spectator ^ | 11/15/2006 | Quin Hillyer

[wgflyer]

Okay, I've been eating lots of crow (followed by desserts of humble pie) this week for ruining, by a hideously wide margin, my previously unblemished record of predicting election results: I could not have been more wrong.

[wgflyer]

Sigh. I guess there is going to be a lot of rationalization that skirts around the single key reason Republicans were devastated in this election cycle...they abandoned principle for political favor. Period. Dems are far better at that than they are and the GOP will lose ground every time they try it.

[publius1]

Actually, I disagree. The Republicans had a story to tell, and never told it. They could have had momentum on national secuirity issues, but that got frustrated by McCain on the torture bill. Literally, in my estimation, they shot themselves--they lacked confidence in themselves and in their message. It's nuts to say, though, that they were defeated because of corruption or something else, when they put forth nothing to run on, and everyone knows that the Dem's are worse.

[zeebee]

He says we lost because the middle went dem.

I say we lost because the left painted us as corrupt and we allowed it.

[rawcatslyentist]

>"I say we lost because the left painted us as corrupt and we allowed it."

The Toon defense of "everybody does it" does NOT work for people with ethics, or morals!

We need to clean our own house first!
This was a preliminary cleaning.
The Rinos have got to go!
The pervs/pedos/profiteers need to be purged!

When we elect honest upright god fearing Christians we will be blessed!

[expatpat]

appeal to the center...., as Reagan did, by making the effort not to change our beliefs but to better explain our beliefs

This is the most important message in this article, IMO.

[BluH2o]

The Republicans had a story to tell, and never told it.

It would help if they could get the word out ... unfortunately the neo-liberals that make up the ranks of MSM in this country squelch it by their constant drumbeat of negativism.

[KDD]

"Younger voters in particular turned out in numbers unprecedented for any mid-term election in recent memory, and they voted heavily Democratic. And exit polls showed that among those late-deciders who made their choices only in the final three days, the Democrats won a 15-point edge. (That's a whopping 40 points better for the Democrats than I had projected!

Frist sneaks through an on-line gambling banking law onto a non-related security bill in the dead of night just before Congress adjourns, two weeks before the election and who is affected most?

According to On-line Players Alliance the average age of the 23 million Americans who wager on-line is between 22 and 37.

Perhaps the on-line organized "Velvet Revolution" played a part. No one was screaming for this Bill to be passed except Dobson but I think other quid pro quo was involved with Frist and the land based Casinos in this country. The worst result of the Bill will be the horrendous banking regulations that will have to be enacted for this law to even work.

[MMcC]

You are more right than you know. I don't even hang out on the poker sites, but I know several people who voted Dem who never would have thought about voting without that bill.

It was stupid beyond words.

[wgflyer]

I like the way you put it, but let me just adjust it a bit, if I may...conservatives had a story to tell but were afraid to tell it because they lost trust in and contact with their constituents and began to believe the belt line gossip and the MSM. The RINOs never had a story to tell other than "I want a cushy job in D.C.", and that meant (they thought) moving left.

Lacking confidence is a telling thing. To me, when a conservative lacks confidence he lacks the belief in his own principles and, somewhat insultingly, he loses faith in those who put him in power because of those very principles. And that such a person wishes to be reelected is an insult.

Libs have no principles. It's natural for them to tell the electorate anything they think might "resonate". Conservatives just can't pull this off. Lying isn't their bag. That so many Republicans have taken to it shows the extent that they've lost their conservatism.

I don't mean to say Republicans lost because of corruption, though that certainly factored in. Corruption is an inevitable symptom of straying from conservative principles of behavior.

We need candidates and elected officials who are pro actively conservative, but not stupidly conservative, and who don't even listen to the MSM but rather make them scream bloody murder. It would give me no end of glee to see MSM complaining that a conservative government had neutered the legal community, reformed our tax system, sealed our borders, ad infinitum, rather than hear conservatives whine that the libs had just made homosexual marriage legal and put a cross in urine.

Man, I'm long-winded here. Sorry.

[wgflyer]

Politicians spend our money and scratch unscrupulous backs to get themselves reelected. We don't need politicians. We need leaders. The latter will have no trouble getting reelected. The former should rot in obscurity.

[gdc314]

They could have had momentum on national secuirity issues, but that got frustrated by McCain on the torture bill. Literally, in my estimation, they shot themselves

Yep, I remember clearly how President Bush set the stage for the GOP to really clobber the Dems on national security...only to have McCain et al proptly shut it all down and give the Dems cover.

[ABG(anybody but Gore)]

You both have a good point. The Mississippi Gulf Coast is brimming with casino resorts. Like the projects for the Pascagoula shipyard he throws into defense budgets for ships the Navy doesn't want or need, the online gambling bill was little more than CYA at home.

[ABG(anybody but Gore)]

Oops, you said Frist, but I have a strong feeling that Trent Lott played a big hand behind the scenes because this reeks of him.

[185JHP]

BTTT

[BlackbirdSST]

...they abandoned principle for political favor. Period. Dems are far better at that than they are and the GOP will lose ground every time they try it.

ooooh, you said the "principle" word. That'll get the hate mongers out in force. Please stand by. Blackbird.

[Tribune7]

The Pubs did manage to break upt the "leave-us-alone" coalition.