The EU discusses whether or not to promote a Keynsian-economics fiscal package similar to the ones we have had hoisted on us. German Chancellor Angela Merkel cuts to the core of the issue by calling this “cheap money.” and noting it will take the EU right down the same cycle of repeated “bailouts” we are now facing.

Her argument demonstrates the core issue that Milton Friedman leveled on deficit-inducing packages and has been repeated by Blackhedd and others (including myself) here. That is, money directed by such practices does not encourage spending at all. Rather it typically gets treated as a “rainy day fund” and gets essentially taken out of circulation–the worst fate possible in an economic downturn.

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Well, if anyone doubted why Kathleen Parker and others hate the base of the party, let’s just dispel that doubt with her own words.

Yes folks. The reason why we lost is because those pesky social conservatives keep talking about God in public. And we need to dump the identification with married Evangelical Christians (and their values) if we seek to grow the Republican Party.

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I wish Sec. Paulson had written the last word on the Bailout Fiasco yesterday. But he gave the clearest summation of it’s failure, for he said it with his own words. Michelle Malkin today called the anemic Sec. Treasury Hank Paulson the “Naked Emperor.”. I’d like to say I am shocked that he admits that the bailout will not do what he intended already. But I am honestly not.

Why should he really have been surprised? After all, over 200 economists, from across the political/economic spectrum, told him it would not work.

As Ronald Reagan said, the biggest lie in the English Language is; “I am with the government and I’m here to help.” The only near-surprising thing to me is that he claims he “knew” on October 3rd, when the bill was signed that the bailout would not work as intended.

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So…here we go again. The Auto Industry is asking for our money…again. Well, who didn’t see this coming after the Wall Street bailout? The law of unintended consequences is taking hold with an iron fist. And now every struggling industry and Blue State is coming to Washington hat-in-hand to beg for your money. And “The One,” being beholden to all of them, is going to give them their way almost for certain.

That Chrysler bailout of our youth doesn’t seem nearly so smart an idea now, does it? Since part of the whole purpose of this bailout is so GM can merge with hapless Crysler. And of course, this merger will still cost 25% of the job force of the two companies. The math just gets better and better.

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Robert Novak suggested today that Newt should run for President in 12. I’m not buying this, for the reasons I state in my comment.

At this point, Gingrich has too many self-inflicted wounds, too much dirt, and has real past personal issues that will not play well with much of the base. He’s a loyal soldier, a great leader, and we need him to be more influential in the party, but he went into “kingmaker” mode for a reason. And I think that is honestly the best place for him.

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Cal Thomas today declared the end of the Religious Right.

To which I will say, “Yes and no.” I have struggled with this my entire adult life. Having been a Conservative longer than I have been a practicing, Bible-believing Christian, this is a perplexing question to me. And I will be honest. I have been frustrated for over a decade with how easily the Evangelical Church has been fooled into believing political power equals hearts and minds won for the Kingdom of God. Lots of people who I respect in the evangelical church have gotten far too interested in the use of political power over the subversive nature of the Gospel of Christ. Having legitimately become politically aware citizens in the latter half of the last century, we have made ourselves into a mega-special interests group in this one. One that can be ignored by an entire party. One that seeks to rule over our culture. But the Gospel is most effective as a counter-culture medium, and always has been. One need do no more than read the Book of Acts to see the evidence for this.

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It may be (to finish Sir Winston’s quote) the end of the beginning.

Despair and anger are natural reactions this week. A lot of time and energy went into something that failed. What’s more, the circular firing squad poisoned the atmosphere even before the end. A lot of comparisons are being made in the media to 1992. Those aren’t the best comparisons. 1976 is a better comparison point on any number of levels, as I have claimed here before. Just as in 76, a “hope and change” candidate beat an “incumbent” that was saddled with problems not of his making. That McCain allowed himself to be painted as the incumbent without any real objection until the final debate is one of many tactical errors he made in the campaign. One I have already said was the worst run campaign in ‘my’ living memory by either party. But shooting the wounded won’t help us any more. It’s time to move on, and get on with the business of being the loyal opposition.

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In today’s “Bad idea” segment

I am struck by the defeatism that seems rampant in this post. First it assumes a loss in this election when the polls are showing things as close as even. Bad idea.

Second, it all but assumes we ‘would likely lose’ against an incumbent Obama in 2012…I really don’t get that at all. If the blinders don’t fall off for people before the election, I think it likely people will have a true collective awakening shortly after (a conceivable) Obama’s agenda gets unfurled in truth. Carter part 2 seems likely to me. Indeed, in many ways, the comparisons between this election and 76 are numerous. The unknown candidate of “hope” being shown against a Republican candidate who was being taken to task by the electorate for things that really weren’t his doing. A recipe for a mandate it is not.

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How to ensure a demagogue wins

Why is it that the popular vote is considered the end-all-be-all of who should govern a nation. So someone runs up two or three large states that lean left 65/35 and can ignore the rest of the nation and deserves to govern why? They already get a huge electoral vote share for winning those states.

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Yes Obama, we know you DID call for a national police force.

The Blue Shirts in authority?

Let’s ask a few questions about this, shall we?

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I read his post. It’s not a troll, but the proper response to it, I believe, demands more than a simple rejoinder comment. here it is

What always interests me is that they assume Republicans are incapable of winning whenever there is a failure in a general election ever again. We heard it most of the Clinton years. “Landslide” they said, even though there was a minor detail that Clinton never got 50% of the popular vote. And no Democrat since Carter 1976 has, and the Democratic party he ran under is hardly anything like the party is today. Yet somehow, a very mediocre campaigner, the son of an absolutely atrocious campaigner, neither of whom were truly conservative at heart, won twice.

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Secret Service says there was no “kill him” shout

Think the mainstream media will backtrack on this. And I would expect the ESPN washout KO to trot that bromide out without verifying it. But you think that respectable news organizations would actually check a story…

wouldn’t you?

Maybe next election cycle the media will do it’s job.

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Conservative audiences do best–surprised?

I’ll admit that the third question is one I might miss if someone caught me distracted on the phone. I don’t tend to think of Gordon Brown unless I’m watching the overseas news. And then only in the context of the collapse of Labour.

I was actually a bit surprised that H&C and Rush audiences outscored even NPR on aggregate. But it does illustrate a point. Conservatives tend to be astute, regardless of education level, and more aware. The left is willing to play to platitudes because they understand the politics of the mob. But since the Republicans (and Reagan in particular) were blamed for “sound bite politics,” this would seem to belie that. You don’t need to do sound bites with people who are aware of their surroundings.

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Every vote counts…twice when it’s a Obama voter.

Oopsie…duplicate voters via ACORN

Hey, don’t worry, after all, they’re the “Democratic party.” This brought to us by the party that illegally substituted Carnehan for the Senate to beat Ashecroft and routinely holds East St. Louis open until 3am while closing down the rest of the state on time.

I have to concede that Brokaw did a manfully fair job in the debate. But do you think that fairness will extend to issues like this? And since the Congress refuses to admit the Republican appointee of the “bipartisan” election commission, do you really think these issues will be properly addressed?

Yes…stealing votes across the nation. And nary a word from the MSM.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/03/news/economy/housefridaybailout/?postversion=2008100314

I have made my view on the bailout clear. This solves nothing, helps nothing. And no, we don’t live in a “post-bailout age.” We only live in the age between this bailout and the next desperate, doomed-to-fail attempt to reinflate the bubble and foist the current monetary mess on the middle class doomed to live under an inescapable debt burden.

That said, I can accept that some people felt, for whatever reason, that they had to hold their nose and vote for this. Lack of understanding the economic details, loyalty to this President, misguided belief that this is actually best for the country. I can accept being wrong or overly loyal or what have you.

What I cannot accept is those who sold their votes for a tax cut. Who were too craven to stand up for their convictions less than 1 week after making them known. Who bowed to internal Congressional pressure for a bill that HALF the country still does not want, and 50% more are against than for.

This is not representative democracy changing their votes. It’s pork-barrel politics being used to buy their concession. It’s selling out their convictions, their constituents, and their nation for a fleecing on the basis of items added that make this bill LESS fiscally responsible than before.

Oh..and a personal message to Roy Blount, my Rep who whipped this bill. I will never, EVER vote for you again. Thank you for selling out conservatism.

When I was a teenager growing up in northern Minnesota in the 80s, I lived in the only state to have voted for Walter Mondale during the Reagan Revolution. So naturally, to rebel against authority, I embraced that revolution. My teachers were most distressed. grins “He’s bright, intellectual, a gifted speaker, and…and crestfallen whisper conservative.” I took a college level class in Econ my senior year of High School (88), and the teacher wanted me to go to the DFL (because Democratic Party isn’t socialist sounding enough for Minnesota) caucus. I said no, I’d be going to the Republican caucus. He said, in his gruff voice that hid his good humor; “You realize they can hold that in a phone booth, don’t you?” I said, “Good, it’ll be easy to support Jack Kemp there then.”

I read the old National Review, with Buckley’s acid wit lambasting the left (and liberal Republicans most of all, Lieberman got his Senate seat in part because of a Buckley endorsement). And I was drawn to the Conservative Mind, Russell Kirk’s thundering statement of the coming revolution. The Primer that Reagan and those who came with him lived by. And I learned the central truth of that work…”Ideas have consequences.” The maxim of modern conservatism, something that increasingly gets dropped from sight in modern discourse.

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You know, in the bad-old days of Karl Rove; bad because we were winning easily, even with an incompetant campaigner like George Bush the elder, we would have crushed Sen Obama for his ties to Fannae and Freddy. We would have crushed him for his ties to oil policies 7 of 10 Americans disagree with. We would have had “Inflate your tires” as his energy policy all over sound bites a month ago.

Why are we settling for dubious character-assassination ads that aren’t playing well or selling well when we can POUND Obama on the one issue he’s polling well on? Am I the only one who thinks showing how far in bed Obama is with Fannae/Freddy or the Sierra Club’s senseless “Don’t drill anywhere” policies is not a winning move?

The only thing he has going for him is his “change agent mantra” and the traditional Dem. advantage on the economy. Hello RNC…this is how you win, you have a line of attack on BOTH of these at once. What are you waiting for? Show them “how” you want to change matters. Show them that when change was needed, BO did NOTHING but play liberal obstructionism. It’s not that hard. It’s a winning play, so why in the heck are you not doing it?

sorry Ron Paul, what it believes matters.

[http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080910/aponelpr/paulthirdpartycandidates]

While I understand his frustration that his small ‘l’ libertarian views (many of which I happen to share) were not taken serious by the neo-cons of the National Republican Party leadership. Nor was he truly, IMHO, given a fair hearing to the public outside the blogospher. The solution is not to say “any” third party candidate will do, even Mr Green Ralph Nader.

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[http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26593948/]

So the One admits that he was too flippant when he said this decision was “above his pay grade.” And Biden says the classic Catholic Left line that “Personally I believe what the Church says, but I can’t enforce that on others.”

What does it mean when one can be so flippant about life that we cannot consider seriously when it begins? The calls of Palin’s hypocrisy (utterly false) continue. But what is it but hypocrisy when two people do not live what they claim to believe? Obama tels us he is Christian, Christian teaching on life is clear, the only debate Biblically is whether God made your soul from eternity or it is made at birth and always known by Him.

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The British seem to see these things more clearly.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/gerard_baker/article4677799.ece

I think he’s dead on. This isn’t about the “culture wars.” It’s not about the “Bible Belt” conservatism. Reagan wasn’t one of those either. I’m amused reading the left who insist on inserting things in Palin’s speech she made no reference to.

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