I will only be on the computer for another hour, and any posts to me after that will have to wait until I return around 6PM.
This is an effort to move the discussion to productive areas. All sides could use some improvement, including the President, whom I think counted too much on Karl and failed to see what was happening.
I thought there was no way in hell that Patrick Murphy, a 32 year old kid who moved into the district just to run for Congress, could win in my district against Mike Fitzpatrick, a well-known and well-loved man who had served with distinction for 10 years on the Bucks County Commission. But Murphy worked his ass off, made the national Democrats believe in him and send him money, and the local Repupblican organization did not take him seriously until it was too late. They they went totally negative and everyone forgot what they liked so much about Mike Fitzpatrick.
There are stories like this in every district we lost. Few of our candidates actually outworked the Democrats and then lost anyway; Jim Talent may be the only one.
Conservatives also have to admit that Democrats have outfoxed us on this stem cell research issue. Independent voters think it is worth spending their tax dollars on, and they think conservatives who oppose it are cruel and holding sick Americans hostage to their far-right "Christianism." This issue lost Jim Talent's Senate seat and it hurt Mike Fitzpatrick too. Jast as we did a good job forcing Democrats to say yes or no to partial birth abortion as the extreme pro-abortion position, Democrats forced Republicans to take sides on waht amounts to the "extreme pro-life" position. There are going to be times when "wedge issues" work against Republicans, and this was one of them.
My personal view, which I have arrived at after much agonized thinking, is that other than Ronald Reagan, Republicans really have not been good at governing this country. We have been very good at stopping the worst excesses of liberalism, and very good at cutting taxes. We've been pretty good at standing up to our enemies, when those enemies can be clearly identified. But when the public wants government to get something done and fix problems, we stink. Democrats are better at the nuts and bolts of running government. They bring in people who want to run government agencies and do good. Republicans bring in political hacks, token women and minorities, and cronies of the President, because smart Republicans are out there running companies and making money. Reagan was the exception, because he brought with him a group of philosophically committed people who wanted to fix the excesses of government and had a plan to do it. Trust me, Bush 41 and 43 didn't. Mike Brown was not an anomaly.
Two different Bush administrations have completely failed to manage natural disasters, and these failures led directly to tanking approval rating for the Presidents and Republican losses in the next election. Bush 43 completely failed to learn the lesson from the failure of Bush 41 after Andrew. The day after Katrina he was in California at a fundraiser. The Republicans in Congress refused to demand any heads rolling after Katrina, they let the "George Bush doesn't care about black people" comment stand without any answer (and made it even worse by pointing fingers at Mayor Nagin), and instead of spending some serious time talking and debating what should be the future of the Gulf Coast, they simply threw $80 billion out the window and left town.
After Katrina, it was not very hard for Democrats to craft a narrative that the Bush administration was incompetent - incompetent to manage the biggest natural disaster in U.S. history and incompetent to manage the war in Iraq. They cleverly demanded Rumsfeld's resignation, knowing the stubborn Bush would not fire him and scared Republicans in Congress would not demand it (the few that did, did it too late to matter). It worked.
Today I heard Newt Gingrich on the radio giving a speech. He added something else that I had not thought of. He said the GOP has become too entrenched with political consultants who think you can slice and dice the electorate and micro-target them, and that the key to winning elections is to tear down your opponent. People are sick of that. They want something and someone to vote FOR, which is what the GOP gave them in 1994 with the Contract with America. He said Republicans were overconfident after the 2004 election, because all they did was prove that they could get more votes against John Kerry than the Democrats could get against George Bush.
I think he is right. Republicans have been running on fumes since the end of the Cold War. Bush had one big idea to cut taxes, and it worked. His other big idea, Social Security reform, needed more airing during the campaign in 2004 so he could get a mandate for it. But Democrats as usual made Congressional Republicans afraid to campaign on it. So when Bush tried to get it done he couldn't.
So now, Newt says, Republicans have lost their edge on ideas, lost their edge on hinesty, and lost their edge on competence - even in national security. He thinks we are lucky to have lost only 30 seats, and I agree with him.
President Bush is the president for two more years. The media has done a number on him and does NOT need our help in attacking the president.
The future is really not about GWB. The future is about the electability of the GOP members. I support the Republican Representative/Senators breaking with this President's agenda when it conflicts with reestablishing conservative principles.
I would hope that the break is accomplished with respect---but the next two years cannot be about protecting GWB.
Just MHO.
I really think the office of President is totally insulated from the real world, so by the 6th year, they're really clueless. I hope that future republican candidates come to the battle technically savy. They should be armed with a laptop and be able to monitor blogs and websites like Free Republic so they can see what "real people" out there are thinking.
I think we need to make him and his ilk the basis of some investigative work, much like those on the dark side tried to do with Rove.
From here on in, the gloves HAVE to come off - if we ever want to get back to where we were. Our country needs us now more than ever.
We also seriously have to do something to get our message out. We are outnumbered here by our enemies - the dumbocrats, the media, and the Soros-funded groups who want to see our country neutralized.
Because Fraley assumes that the reader knows the background of the AG politics going in, I'll give a short background the race (I'll at least try to keep it short to keep this from taking a trip to Fantasy Island):
These 11 issues are all clear and all doable.
- Make English the Official Language of Government.
- Control the Borders.
- Keep God in the Pledge.
- Require a Voter ID Card.
- Repeal the Death Tax, for Good.
- Restore Property Rights.
- Achieve Sustainable Energy Independence.
- Control Spending and Balance the Budget.
- Tie Education Funding to Teacher Accountability.
- Defend America From the Irreconcilable Wing of Islam.
- Focus on Iran and North Korea.
I agree with your analysis of the "politics-inside-politics." I will respond with my own vanity of "politics-outside-politics."
I started writing it a few nights ago and am slowly getting it in place.
Nice job on this vanity.
Thank you.
McVey
Another discovery I made about this past election was the involvement of these liberal candidates at High Schools. First time since I have been in this area of 17 + years, I found that the high school my children attended had the local libs on campus for a campaign visit with high school students sponsored (ha) democrats.
One cannot ignore the usage of UNIONS also means teachers are preaching the liberal sermons. The minimum wage increase being the basis for negotiating raises, I expect my property taxes will be raised to fund those teachers salary increases.
For later.......
I live near Boston.
Not a single vote of mine was in accord with the majority.
Just another day at the ballot box here in Massachusetts.
Emmanuel will have his hands full the next 2 years keeping his party in line .. Nancy Pelosi may be Speaker of the House . but it is Emmanuel that pulls the puppet string per his orders
With all that said .. Our Party needs to get their act together an not to take their eye off the ball
My suggestions.
Articulate what Republican values are and what they mean to the citizen.
Run candidates and support incumbents that stick to Republican values instead of playing to the media.
Stop cooperating with the media and do an end run around them to get our message out. 85% of them want our blood, why give them ammo to shoot us with? We have to find a way to speak above the noise, a way to get our message out, a way to challenge their deception all the while not infringing on their right of free speech.
Articulate what our plan is for fighting terrorism and why Iraq is still a critical battlefield.
No tolerance whatsoever for corruption and the ethically challenged Republicans. Publicly disown them, shame them and make them resign.
Republicans used to be the party of ideas, now it seems to be the party of the status quo.
We can do better.
There was not "one election".
There were 400 individual elections.
And likely there were 400 reasons "why" they came out the way they did.
If people don't want to totally be left twisting in the wind come 2008 talk of abandoning the ship because you think the cup is only half full needs to stop.
No one is going to make everyone happy all of the time. We need to chose our battles carefully and intelligently and when the uptimate candidate for GOP POTUS is selected support him or her.... and, yes, I am very disappointed JD lost, but we will survive.
Alas, what tanked the GOP was a combo of the Iraq War and scandal. In that environment, the strong survived, and the weak were swept away. Sure individual candidates and records and resumes mattered, but there was a headwind for the GOP. The losses were mostly due to a fairly substantial swing by independents to the Dems, rather than differential turnout rates, of the respective GOP and Dem bases, both of which stayed pretty loyal, in most places. Pubbies of course even vaguely tinged with scandal were almost invariably dead meat. That accounted for Senator Burns' retirement, and about 8 house seats more or less. Heck, that almost took Doolittle in California down in a hyper GOP district.
I think the Republicans ran right, governed mid-left by spending like drunken sailors and ignoring such things as illegal immigration, tax reform, and winning (NOT maintaining) the war in Iraq.
Truth is....the Dems will totally misread the results and start governing hard-Left. This will destroy them in 2008.
Great analysis.
Here are two examples of many excellent finds by kcvl ...IMHO :
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