I think that the Republican Party needs to take a long hard look at the exit polling. I working at a polling place in Albemarle County, Virginia that went 66% for Obama. We had students, government workers and hospital/university workers. We had students that didn’t even know their own addresses! If this is the future of America, I don’t want it. Obama has set us on an unsustainanble path to become a super-Greece.

The first thing that the House should do is depose Mr. Boehner and elect Paul Ryan as Speaker. Then we’d have a strong ideological leader who was visible every day.

I look for the Republican governors to push back against the Federal government. Remember one thing: America exists because of the consent of the governed. If half the country does not consent, what will we have?

Very well said. Greece here we come. I smile today as I know I will be dead and gone by the time 8 years of the Obama-destruction of the freeest nation on earth shows up in the form of the widespread poverty inherent in Socialism. All those ignorant young voters dancing in the streets will get what they deserve soon. At least I have the peace of mind to know I have been on the side of true Americans throughout this battle. No world power, no amount of UN Globalism could defeat America, and in the end it was defeated from within.

I like what you have said, & I agree with you. The great experiment that was America is done – thinking so is Israel. By 2016 this country will be irreversibly liberal or socialist or some such aberration of what we knew America to be.

Erick, please don’t ignore the results of the election. Romney won in MO & IN by 10. Akin lost by 15. Mourdock lost by 5. I don’t think I’m lying to myself in making this observation. As for 2014, I don’t think the primaries are the proving grounds for social conservatives. Yes, in many states and districts they are the candidate of choice. But can they win in November? As with the Tea Party some times you end up with a Marco Rubio; some times you get a Christine McDonnell.

Erick I think you must be soking some of that medical mary Jane. The Tea Party and the Repubican Partys both abandoned all conservatives. We had no champions. I told you in 2011 during trhe Primaries that Romeny while he is a veryu nice man and honest he wassn’t fighting material he had no way of beating the evil he was facing. no one listened and look what we have now. The way the Liberals are gaining in strength if we hold onto the house in 2014 it will be amiracle. I am renoucing my membership in the Republican party that I have had for the past 50 years. They do’t want a Reagan Conservative anymore. The leadership of the Party actually fought against the Tea Party becasue of its conseravtism. I thinkit is time to replace the Lincoln Republican Party with somethng else. We have to be strong enough as a conservative Party to draw in not only the republican conservatives but the Democratic conservatives. Liek i said before i am 65 and doubt i wil live long enough to see America Strong again.

Akin & Mourdock didn’t lose b/c they were pro-life; they lost b/c they kept talking when they should’ve shut up. My humble advice to all pro-life politicians: when asked for your position on abortion, say simply, “I’m pro-life with (x) exceptions. My position is based on my values and I will stand up for these values if elected.” Period. Shut up. Do not talk about “legitimate rape” or what “God intended.” Just be pro-life, stand up for it, and that’s it. Whether what Akin or Mourdock said is true is irrelevant. The media is going to take any other comments and run with them, whether we like it or not.

As a conservative attorney (yes, we exist), these abortion questions are like questions in a deposition. The more you talk, the more the deposing attorney is going to dig into you and make you look like a fool, a liar, or worse. In politics, the media is the deposing attorney, and the voting public is the jury. No matter what you say in press conferences after your answer to the media’s original question on abortion, the media is going to throw your original comments back in your face until the public buys the argument that you are guilty as a woman-hating, privacy-invading, Bible-thumping, scientific-idiot Neanderthal. As a general rule, in a deposition, one should give accurate answers in as few words as possible. The same applies to conservative politicians who are asked about abortion; answer the question briefly and hush. And remember, it’s hard to affect the abortion debate as a politician if you don’t get elected in the first place.

By all means–take this lawyer’s advice–do not tell the truth about what you believe in! That’s the way to fool the public and get elected.

Baloney. Tell the truth, just don’t keep yapping on about “legitimate rape” and what “God intended,” even if it’s “what you believe in.” Contrary to popular belief, we don’t always need to say everything that’s on our mind. It’s good to have a filter; otherwise, we end up looking and sounding like Joe Biden (I can’t believe we have to hear HIS name for 4 more years). Say you’re pro-life and get on with it. Nobody’s “fool[ing] the public.” This advice is like the old advice from my grandfather – better to keep your mouth shut and let everyone think you’re a fool than to open it and remove all doubt. Two careless minutes from 2 politicians cost us 2 pro-life seats.
Abortion is one of those issues where, the more you dig into the weeds while answering a question, the worse you look. Simply answer the question and get elected. If Mourdock and Akin had just said they were pro-life with (x) exceptions, they’d be 2 more votes in the Senate for overturning pro-abortion Obamacare. So, you apparently advise politicians to talk about “legitimate rape” and what “God intended” because it’s “tell[ing] the truth about what you believe in.” Hope that works out for you. Akin and Mourdock are 2 good people, they just stepped in it and it cost them and the pro-life cause. We pro-lifers have GOT to be smarter than that.

I agree that about the Romney bashing! But we still have control of the house that means something.

Amen brother.

As usual, you nail it.

Bob Dole refused to back Sam Brownback in 1996 yet Sam went on to win a Senate seat and now is governor of Kansas,. He presides over a state where tea party candidates took back the Senate. They made gains and maybe a majority on Assembly also and all can work well with Gv Brownback who is pro life and a fiscal conservative. Taxes and lowering themis on the Kansas agenda for legislation and they may eliminate the state income tax or some major tax. This is heavy duty work by conservatives who osee taxes as oppressive..

Bob Dole a few years back on TV to an audience was pumping abortion and bashing the GOP for not being pro abortion.

The US is more pro life than pro abortion and if we allow the DNC and media to influence us on how to grow by looking more like Democrats we will still not win. Democrats are the real thing when it comes to killing innocents and a single issue voters will go with them every time. How well are they doing nnationwide? What are DNC chances for 2014, 2016?

We must not abandon life as there is a demand for pro life candidates in a society that was formed on self government. Liberals, secularists and media all want the GOP to abandon people of faith, limited government constitutionalists and become a top down centralized nation more like a EU super state than the United States as it was designed 1787. Move us away from Life and break our confidence, our reasoning and judgement is is how they start to divide us. But we are rooted in our history and must not budge.

Test us on a core value to win an election.

Martyrs, both Catholic and Protestants are those who would not renounce their faith and thus were inspirations to all who believed in the past. Were it not for the Protestant Reformation and self govening congregations Puritans and Dissenters from 1500s on , all evangelical of sorts, we would not be here as the USA. We come from them. Founders held firm the premise that if the Prince were not good and all else failed we would not remain in servitude. And this pro life issue is similar in that it is grounded in sacred rights and duties. It is up to us to protect innocents.
Do not take the bait to switch; Life is alive

I prefer to ask the Germans, the Japanese, the South Koreans, the Swedes, the Norwegians, the Danes, the Dutch – you know, the many secular democracies that are kicking our butt economically, and managing to have freedom as well as a social safety net.

I’m not laughing at Erick I’m crying. Crying at what the coalition of crony capitalists and church-as-staters have wrought. And crying that folks like Erick that IMO should be real conservatives – promoting liberty and a strong nation with a strong economy – have become their willing tools.

Well, to begin with, the only reason that they’re outperforming us right now is because we have a, wait for it… a president of America’s secular party in office. Japan’s economy has stagnated for years, and it is a corporatist country. The Northern European Countries you named have all kinds of laws protecting Muslims from criticism, high taxation, etc. Ask Geert Wilders about how free the Netherlands is. South Korea still doesn’t approach the wealth this country traditionally has.

The fact that you promote a ‘social safety net’ tells me a lot. I thought you might be a Ronulan, but you’re just a socialist tool.

another candidate for the “missed a great chance to STFU” award.

American taliban, eh? Never heard that one before…

Mourdock also had a foot-in-mouth moment which he was unable to overcome, but what set him back also was the p***ed-off Lugar-ites who refused to support him after he beat their RINO champion in the primary.

I recently told a state senator friend — this was in early October — that if Obama wins, the last hope of federalism is gonna come down to the states. So maybe, Celador, you have a point — just depends on how feisty those states get — whether they’re happy to be provinces of DC, or whether they want their sovereignity preserved.

I’d like to speak to the social conservative issue:

My personal position on abortion is that there should be exceptions for rape, incest, and threats to the life of the mother ( I realize that’s probably not a popular view on RedState)

My thinking on this is as follows:

1. Not everything that is morally wrong can rightfully be made illegal.
2. Killing a developing fetus at a very early stage of development – is different from killing a fully developed baby because the fetus is not yet a sentient being.
3. Banning a woman from aborting a child that she was impregnated with during rape is a more morally complicated situation than banning abortion on demand.

I imagine that the prospect of being raped and conceiving as a result of that rape is a HORRIFYING thought to most any woman — and I very much admire any woman who goes through that and chooses to keep her child. But under those circumstances, I don’t think that it’s the place of the state to tell her she must go through pregnancy and give birth.

I realize it’s not as clean a position as “life is life – taking life is wrong” but I also think forcing a woman to endure pregnancy that resulted from rape is wrong. To me the irresponsibility of women who have consensual sex without effective birth control (or who even use abortion as birth control) is relevant.

I can and have voted for candidates who are well to the right of me on abortion (partly because I think banning abortion altogether will not happen) and I respect their reasons for taking their stance – HOWEVER – I have often been turned off by the rhetoric of pro-lifers who take a more purist stance because they so often choose not to deal with the issue of conception-through-rape. And – frankly – when a male politician just blows past the issue it does come across as callous and high handed.

Pro-life purists need to show that they understand why, frankly a large majority of people see banning abortion for rape victims as different from banning abortion on demand and they need to talk about the issue a LOT more respectfully. And there needs to be some kind of party discipline to ensure some random Senate candidate doesn’t damage the whole party.

In CO, we took heavy losses at the state level – and it was precisely because of unaffiliated female voters.

The “War on Women” worked — and was probably much more effective because of help from Republicans.