Rush's Blueprint (David Frum Barf Alert)

National Review ^ | October 27, 2008 | David Frum

[rightwingintelligentsia]

Last week, Tony Blankley published and Rush Limbaugh publicized what may prove one of the most important articles of 2008. I don't mean that the article was good - very much the contrary. But bad work can be even more important than good, if enough people can be got to believe it.

--snip--

If I understand it correctly, the Blankley/Rush argument goes like this:

1) Reagan-style conservatism remains wildly popular with the American people. It was the "blueprint" for winning landslides between 1980 and 1994, and it remains the blueprint today.

2) Yet for some unaccountable mysterious reason, politicians are ignoring this blueprint! There is not a strong elected conservative voice in the country today.

3) So obviously what we need to do is return to the politics of the 1980s - and sit back and collect the rewards.

[Don'tMessWithTexas]

FRUM IS A FOP!

[Orange1998]

I think Rush made a bone head call for voting BO instead of Hillary in the primary. We could have defeated Hillary.

[kcvl]

David J. Frum (born 1960) is a Canadian-born Neoconservative and journalist active in the both US and Canadian political arenas.

Born to a Jewish family in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Frum is the son of the late Barbara Frum, a well-known veteran journalist. His father, Murray Frum, was a dentist who later became a multi-millionaire as a real estate developer. David Frum’s sister, Linda Frum is a journalist. David Frum is married to writer Danielle Crittenden, the stepdaughter of former Toronto Sun editor Peter Worthington.

At age 14 he was a campaign volunteer for a socialist candidate, taking an hour-long bus/subway/bus ride each way to and from the campaign office in western Toronto.

Frum is widely cited as having authored the phrase “axis of evil,”

Frum has been accused of misrepresenting Canadian crime statistics in order to incorrectly portray crime in Canada as increasing while the crime rate in the United States is dropping.

[kcvl]

Frum: GOP Should Cut Losses, Focus On Senate

October 27, 2008 · With the polls favoring Barack Obama and one week left until Election Day, David Frum says Republicans should be focusing on the Senate, not the White House. Otherwise, the former speechwriter for George Bush says, John McCain’s campaign threatens to bring the party down with him.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96175816

[pissant]

Obama is easy to beat. But it takes balls. We’ll see if the GOP has any.

[xlib]

The fact of the matter is that the undecideds must ultimately choose between someone on the right and someone on the left. The choice is not always made in favor of the one who crosses over the farthest, it is more often made in favor of the one who is the most credible candidate, regardless of ideology. This time around, for various reasons which are almost incomprehensible to us conservatives, Obama is a very credible candidate to more than half the country despite the fact that he is actually a radical.

It's not that incomprehensible. Probably 25 to 30% of voters are as radical as he is; the media is more brazenly in the tank than anyone could have ever imagined; with the help of a weaselly republican congress, "W" has presided over an obsene expansion of government, thereby demoralizing his base (that'd be you and me--I had pretty much sworn off politics until McCain picked Palin); and McCain, God bless him, is no conservative. Republicans lose when they nominate the next in line (Dole, Ford). They win with principled insurgents like Reagan who don't give a damn about Frum-style demographics. Looking ahead, I can think of 2 republicans who have the potential to properly present conservatism--Jindal & Palin. Unless McCain pulls this off, there'll be no heir apparent in 2012, thank God.

[xlib]

oops—obsene = obscene

[SMCC1]

I’d add Paul Ryan, Mike Pence and Thaddeus McCotter

[y6162]

Frum...Noonan...have committed career suicide.

We must punish them.

[ForeignDude]

I know I am going to get nailed for this, but I think David Frum may have a point.

Think about it. Today, terms like “liberal”, “Marxist”, “socialist” and the like seem to wash over the electorate with nary a disturbance. If these terms were as pejorative now as they were back in 1980, Obama-mama would have never made it through the primaries. On the other hand, the MSM has hammered into American homes the equation of “conservative” with “mean”, “selfish”, “racist”, and so on. I am convinced that that is why most people tend to agree with conservative principles (e.g., personal responsibility, individual liberty, etc.), yet shy away from calling themselves “conservative”.

What we need is a (God help me) “re-branding” of the conservative movement. As much as those kind of Madison Avenue shenanigans leave a foul taste in my mouth, I think it is necessary. As liberals transformed themselves into “progressives”, we must now transform ourselves and utilize new terms and new icons that will continue to define our substance, our principles, but which do not come laden with the emotional baggage unfairly attached to the term “conservative”.