Of course, when the downtown bridge falls in the river, people will want to know why nothing was done sooner for this obviously foreseeable problem. Perhaps John Yarmuth can head up the board of inquiry.

The Libs will come up with an endless list of Nanny State rules. Limits on fast-food restaurants. Warnings labels on candy. Subsidies for un-economic “green” energy. Cars limited to 55mph. Normal Americans will laugh, mock them, and vote ‘em out.

Both parties then looked around and realized – there were no negative consequences to spending tens of billions of taxpayer dollars. After that, it was off to the races. Thus the Farm Bill, the Transportation Bill and, the savior of the Republican Party, the Medicare Prescription Drug bill.

Thus the corruption in both parties, with asymmetrical attention to the Republicans (Cunningham big news, Jefferson no news at all). Then 2006, now this.

To get “from here to there” all this is needed is a consistent attention to the core conservative principles, the development of market-oriented policies to address the “ills” of education, healthcare, etc. – and some great, visible communicators. I would like to see Gingrich as head of the RNC, and some Young Turks from the House step forward into leadership roles.

With the inevitable disasters of the Obama Presidency – overreaching, a fracturing of the Democrat party into coalitions, and Hillary revving up her primary challenge in 2012, the entire situation could be so different, and so much better, by 2010.

Quite honestly there are many Republicans in congress that are nearly indistinguishable from their counterparts except for the little elephant on their lapel.

The foundation of any new platform for the GOP must be open, honest, ethical behavior. Without that, many conservatives will remain skeptical.

One is a “need” the other is a “want”.

I live in SF Bay Area. You should have seen the utter despair and grief by the Libs in both 00 and 04, when they were shown the door. They were absolutely devastated. The same articles were written, showing how demographics had forever changed and the libs were relegated to a permanent minority.

The difference is this: We don’t run away to Canada, and we don’t try to undermine the nation’s security.

Americans like to have divided government. I guarantee that if we can present a competent case for less government intrusion, more personal freedom, strong defense, and fiscal restraint, we will have our rightful place in leadership.

The 1994 republican revolution was the master stroke of Gingrich. He ran a national campaign on local races. He proved once again conservatism wins elections. Whoever is the nominee on 2012 must do what Reagan and Ginrich did, not just have a strategy to beat the democrat but have a strategy to beat the media.

If you were paying attention, you might have noticed that Ernie Fletcher, who was ousted in 2007, was our first Republican governor in 30-plus years. He was almost immediately hamstrung by the Commonwealth’s Attorney General spending the next four years pursuing a positively asinine investigation surrounding Kentucky’s merit hiring policies, which had two misdemeanors and pile of character assassination as its only significant outcome. Fletcher only got elected in the first place because his opponent in 2003 had been too closely tied to the scandal-ridden outgoing governor.

McConnell’s not perfect. But the alternative to him here isn’t likely to be a Tom Coburn. It’ll be some empty suit of a liberal like we’ve now got in the state’s third congressional district. Now, instead of Northup’s work on funding a couple of bridges that were needed to deal with increasing traffic across the existing, aging bridges, we have federal funding for … parks. You won’t get less pork by replacing McConnell. You will get stupider pork, and you will lose a Republican seat in the Senate.

It’s long, but those who appreciate history — and are unfamiliar with the rise and fall of American political parties and their attendant ideologies of the moment — will find it illuminating.

Cheers.

All we have to do to win is field a candidate who spends a year locked in a room reading everything Ronald Reagan ever said or wrote, believes it, and articulates it. Simple.

But his campaign which proclaimed how many earmarks he has already provided his good constituents and how much more his seniority is yet to yield, DESTROYED his leadership in representing conservative principles.

Who is the Jeff Flake of the Senate? We need him to step forward.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122593259568103473.html

You put the above together as well as the leadership void left by President Bush, who after Katrina, spent his remaining political capital on the Surge in Iraq, and you get President Elect Obama.

We’ve been at war, and the American Public is tired. They want to be led, and Obama’s ability to, as Rush put’s it, “say nothing better than any one else,” convinced enough of them that he is the One to do it.