American’s don’t like to give up on their president. We want the president to succeed in a general way because we know if he fails the nation is harmed to some extent. In many respects Barack Obama is on a path blazed by James Earl Carter over three decades ago. More Americans “liked” Carter than thought he was doing a good job as President. That | Read More »
Few people are willing to deal with reality. Liberalism is built on a base of “let’s pretend” and in far too many cases conservatives have gone along part way to preserve their relevance in the eyes of popular culture. Just as facts are stubborn things, reality doesn’t negotiate or alter itself to suit modern sensibilities. Reality is what it is and yes often it bites. | Read More »
Mitt Romney has increasingly been making the claim that an Individual Mandate (IM) is a “conservative principle” and that many conservatives were for it before they were against it. The latter point is correct. An IM was not a hugely controversial issue among conservatives ten or fifteen years ago. It was advanced as a way to make the irresponsible pay their fair share instead of | Read More »
Numerous preemptive obituaries are being written for Governor Rick Perry’s campaign. These efforts are premature because they fail to understand and appreciate the fickle winds of political fortune. Governor Perry has substantial political assets that make him a potent candidate and that will give him another chance to prove himself to Republican voters. Each candidate brings their own set of positives and negatives to the | Read More »
The battle for the GOP presidential nomination was greatly clarified in recent days in the wake of the Las Vegas debate and candidate statements in various interviews. The Las Vegas debate showcased yet another flaw in Mitt Romney’s make up: He has a glass jaw. If this were a boxing match he’d still be on the canvas. His hysterical over-reaction to Rick Perry regarding Lawngate | Read More »
I’ve been an interested observer of presidential elections for most of my life. As a teenager I laid in bed with an AM radio pressed to my ear listening to the Kansas City Republican Convention as the roll was called and Ronald Reagan narrowly lost to Jerry Ford. The most important words in that paragraph are the last seven: “Ronald Reagan narrowly lost to Jerry | Read More »
Forty-seven years ago Ronald Reagan, then 53 years old and likely at the height of his intrinsic abilities, gave a speech that resonates as relevantly today as it did when the Beatles ruled the music charts. <embed id=VideoPlayback src=http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-1777069922535499977&hl=en&fs=true style=width:400px;height:326px allowFullScreen=true allowScriptAccess=always type=application/x-shockwave-flash> </embed> When you realize it was four presidential terms and 16 years before the man speaking above was sent to the White | Read More »
I don’t know Rick Perry, he’s not a friend of mine and from what I’ve observed of him he’s no Ronald Reagan. But I think conservatives who are so crashingly disappointed in Perry today really need to chill out and gain some historic perspective. The wails of anguish emanating from various conservatives today is disconcerting for many reasons but primarily because I fear there is | Read More »
Rick Boucher was first elected in 1982 and I well remember the shock that we Virginia Republicans felt when he defeated long time Representative William Wampler. Re-elected without fanfare every two years since, Boucher has come to seem virtually unbeatable. Until now. Southwest Virginia is coal country. For decades Boucher has remained in office in large measure because he caters to the coal industry and | Read More »
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