Palin had Fred’s knowledge on the issues. Ah, but she hasn’t been counsel to two Senate committees which deal with security and foreign relartions. She hasn’t served multiple Senate terms. She hasn’t been an AEI visiting fellow studying Russia, China and North Korea. She hasn’t served on a board which advised SECSTATE on foreign policy/national security issues.

But she can get Fred to mentor her on foreign policy and national security issues. He shouldn’t require too much convincing to help her out, seeing as his wife is one of the higher-ups in Team Sarah.

Palin has something that Fred will never have. Although he’s a genial and charming fellow, he just doesn’t electrify crowds the way Palin can. Dads and Moms didn’t bring their sons and daughters to see Fred at campaign rallies, driving several hours to get there and standing in line for several more hours just to get inside.

If only Fred had been able to have that effect on John and Jane Q. Public, I remember some real knock down drag out arguments Frederalists had with Duncan Hunter supporters back when I used to hang out at FR a lot. Their argument was that Fred is not a conservative., His support for affirmative action and McCain Feingold disqualified him. Never mind Fred’s 86% ACU score, never mind his very good evaluations from CATO, Club for Growth and the National Taxpayers Union. His economic conservatism didn’t matter in the eyes of the Duncanistas because they considered Fred a heretic on two issues. If you confronted these people with Hunter’s support for the porkfest of a highway bill he voted for in 2005, they would either change the subject or say that it didn’t matter, because Hunrter would save us from all those “Meskins” coming across the border.

So Fred didn’t make the cut with these people. They didn’t want Mitt either. Poor Mitt’s conversion to conservatism came too late in his life to suit them. And besides, he belonged to a “cult” instead of a real church. In no small part, thanks to people like the Duncan Hunter absolutists, we were saddled with John McCain. And the saddest part of it all is that, even after the disaster of a candidate he was and the joke of a campaign he ran, the absolutists have not learned a dang thing from the election of 2008. In their eyes, Fred is still not a conservative, and neither is Romney.

Are Palinistas a cult? There’s a lot more of them than there are Duncanistas, but in terms of shooting-themselves-in-the-foot absolutism,, the Palinistas have nothing on the Duncanistas. Most Palin supporters, I believe would settle for a second choice before they would see another McCain debacle. The Duncan Hunter folks,meanwhile,are convinced that even though their guy got 1% or less of the vote in the ’08 GOP primaries, their man will be The One who will save the country in 2012.

Go figure…

- JP

- JP

to come as close to 100% as possible. Simply accepting someone as the leader of the party for acceptance sake has gotten the GOP nowhere and in fact it has hurt us.

Ronaldus Mangus was not 100% but he was darn close. What the GOP needs now is someone who can convey the conservative message, not someone who capitulates for political expediency.

Ronald Reagan never said he needed the Black, Asian, Hispanic, Gay, Environmentalist vote. What he did say was that you are American and you are capable of great things if left unfettered by government binds.

I keep reading these articles from supposed “conservative minds” stating that we need to expand our base by reaching out, but what they mean by reaching out is concending conservative principles at the alter of moderation. The false wisdom being that the GOP can somehow attract centrists and even lifelong democrats. I completely disgree with this premise and the reality is born out by the GOP’s current condition.

What this party needs is someone that can deliver the conservative message with clairty and unabashedness. Someone who wears conservatism like a badge of honor. Not somebody who is aplogetic about his/her conservatism, because in the end, where has that gotten us?

Afterall, if we have learned anything from Ronald Reagan, it’s that conseravitve principles, well explained, is a proven winning ticket every time it’s tried.

so nothing about Gov. Palin bothers me much. I know what to expect from her in Alaska politics and don’t much care what she does nationally; she’s just one more fish in the pond, albeit a big one these days, at the national level. What drives me over the edge is presumably sane people engaging in blind cult-like hero worship of her of the sort we denigrate the Obamaniacs for.

I just can’t see electing a Republican by endlessly repeating “She Cut the Budget,” whether true or not, the way BHO got elected by endlessly repeating “hopenchange.” Somehow, I think Republicans will be held to a more rational standard. So, I’m waiting for one of these writers of Palin Paeans to explain to me how reducing a supplemental request is a budget cut in any but a Democrat mind. (Hint: Her press guy, who undoubtedly wrote the press release, is a Democrat, so to him, it may be a budget cut. I just expect better on this side of the ditch.)

It is tough on Gov. Palin since we now have our shiny new Democrat Senator who can turn loose the guns on her about how she hasn’t asked for enough. Sen. Murkowski, no stranger to reaching in the cookie jar, hasn’t chimed in yet, but Begich and his mouthpiece, the Anchorage Daily News, has had plenty to say.