At RedState, we recognize that abortion is not likely to be the foremost issue in this year’s federal elections. We know that at a time when the economy continues to spiral out of control, massive numbers of people remain unemployed or underemployed, and Obama’s reckless spending threatens our fiscal health, it is difficult to force people to focus on a problem that remains largely unseen, and does not ultimately impact the ability of families to put food on their table. Yet it remains appropriate to take a moment to grieve the lost and to reaffirm our commitment to the basic principles to which we are committed.

The first and foremost responsibility of any legitimate government, no matter its form, is to prevent where possible the taking of innocent life. The second responsibility of any government is to punish the taking of innocent life when the government has failed at its first responsibility. Thirty-nine years ago, the Supreme Court of the United States broke with centuries of precedent and the plain text of the Constitution and declared that the Government of the United States was constitutionally prevented from carrying out these responsibilities when the innocent life in question was contained within a woman’s womb. Since that time, the gears of death and slaughter have marched inexorably onward, and the blood of tens of millions has been spilled on our soil with nary a second thought by the vast majority of our populace.

Were this a tragedy of any other sort, we might pause here to list the names – or at least a portion of the names – of the fallen. Yet here we cannot, because the fallen have been denied the dignity of a name, or of a life that anyone might remember and lament, or of a proper burial. This is a perfect encapsulation of the evil Roe has wrought, that we all instinctively mourn the most the young who die without the chance to live a proper and full life – except in the case of children who are unwanted by their parents, who we have somehow been conditioned to not mourn at all. This injustice cannot and will not be sustained forever, and we renew our commitment this year and every year to do everything within our power within the lawful political process to see Roe overturned. We do not now and will not ever support any candidate who pledges fealty to this judicial usurpation and the machinery of death it enables.

On this day, we remember.

RedState is proud to issue its first Congressional endorsement for 2012: RedState supports Tom Cotton for Congress in Arkansas’ Fourth Congressional District.

Tom Cotton has perhaps the most compelling story of any new Congressional candidate this election season. This profile in the Weekly Standard lays it out in detail and is well worth the read. By way of summary, Cotton grew up in Southwest Arkansas, went to Harvard undergrad and Harvard Law, and was headed for a lucrative career as a high-profile attorney. However, along the way, 9/11 happened. Cotton decided that he needed to serve his country, so after completing his judicial clerkship and paying off his student loans, Cotton enlisted in the military. Cotton was offered a commission as a Captain in the Army JAG corps, but refused this position because he wanted to enlist in the infantry. He served combat tours as an Army Ranger in Iraq and Afghanistan.

What sort of person leaves a cushy job with a huge salary for the privilege of being shot at by terrorists? The sort of person we need more of in the United States Congress.

As you might expect from someone with multiple degrees from Harvard who spent the last several years shooting terrorists, Cotton is bright, articulate, and passionate about America, and conservative values. He is a small-government, pro-life conservative. We feel comfortable that he would not only fight Democrats, but also Republican leadership (or a Republican President), if necessary. We are convinced that Cotton would not only be a reliable conservative vote, but also that he would be an effective advocate for conservative causes in the House.

Arkansas’ Fourth Congressional District is one of the last seats held by the Democrats in the South. Although the district has been trending red in Presidential elections (Bush took 51% of the vote in 2004, McCain took 58% in 2008), Democrat Mike Ross has held the seat without facing a serious challenge since 2000. Ross has announced his retirement (presumably to run for Governor in 2014), thus leaving the seat wide open.

Cotton’s strongest potential challenger is former Lt. Gov Bill Halter, who gained national fame for his unsuccessful primary challenge to Blanche Lincoln in 2010. Although Halter was unable to defeat Lincoln, he has nearly universal name recognition in Arkansas, and forged formidable fundraising relations with unions and the online left. If Halter runs (as is widely expected), Democrats are expected to put on a full court press to hold this seat, and Halter could realistically pour $3M into a Congressional race in Southwest Arkansas.

Obviously, fundraising prowess will be critical in this race, and Cotton has shown that he possesses it in spades. Despite the fact that this race has barely touched the national consciousness prior to this point, Cotton raised $343K in his first quarter of fundraising, and realistically expects to raise at least $1.5 to $2M before the campaign season is over. This warchest will be absolutely necessary to defeat Halter and put this seat in Republican hands where it belongs.

Cotton’s main primary opponent is former Huckabee chief of staff Beth Rankin. Rankin ran for this seat as the Republican nominee in 2010, and despite the fact that 2010 was a Republican wave year, Rankin was unable to raise sufficient funds or gain traction against Ross, suffering a disappointing double-digit loss in a race many felt the Republicans could have surely contested. We doubt that Rankin will be able to raise the necessary funds and effectively communicate a conservative message to the voters of Arkansas.

RedState supports Tom Cotton, and so should you. Donate to Tom here, Get involved if you live in the area by volunteering through his website. This is a seat a true conservative can win, and we believe Tom Cotton is that conservative.

Every year on this date, the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we pause here at RedState to remember the fallen and renew our commitment to do everything within the confines of the lawful political process that may be done to end the greatest injustice that has ever been foisted on our society.

The Declaration of Independence reflects a truth held self-evident by the founders and every subsequent generation of Americans: that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  These principles were subsequently enshrined in the United States Constitution in the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.  Twice in our nation’s history, arrogant and power-mad Supreme Court Justices have declared that certain humans are exempt from the promise of the Declaration and the guarantees of the Constitution.

In the first instance, in Scott v. Sandford, the Supreme Court drew a line and declared that those on the “slave” side of the line were entitled to no protection from the law, and could be treated with impunity by their masters. That slaves were human was beyond dispute; instead, the Court found solace in an artificial and tortured distinction which treated those humans belonging to the category of “slave” as a special kind of human that was not to be treated like the rest of humanity.

In Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court repeated the same exercise, this time engaging in spectacular mental gymnastics with the word “person”:

The appellee and certain amici argue that the fetus is a “person” within the language and meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment. In support of this, they outline at length and in detail the well-known facts of fetal development. If this suggestion of personhood is established, the appellant’s case, of course, collapses, for the fetus’ right to life would then be guaranteed specifically by the Amendment. The appellant conceded as much on reargument. . . . The Constitution does not define “person” in so many words.

And thus the Supreme Court drew a line and declared that those humans on the “person” side were entitled to the right to life, and those on the “non-person” side (as defined by the Court) were not. The combined effect of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton was that a line was drawn at physical location within a woman’s womb.

Earlier this week, the entire world was horrified by the story of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortionist who was arrested and charged with eight counts of murder when it came to light that he had stabbed at least eight children whom he had unsuccessfully attempted to abort in the back of the head. Although Dr. Gosnell’s story is horrifying, the only reason it is newsworthy is because the American public’s conscience has been trained to ignore the fact that worse monstrosities than Gosnell’s occur thousands of times every single day in America, because the victims of these monstrosities are on the wrong side of the arbitrary line drawn by our black-robed masters.  We reject this exercise in willful ignorance and on this day we force ourselves to remember, that our consciences may still be pricked, and so that we will not become callous to that which is evil and regard it as an unimportant or secondary concern in our political activism.

Here at RedState, we too have drawn a line. We will not endorse any candidate who will not reject the judicial usurpation of Roe v. Wade and affirm that the unborn are no less entitled to a right to live simply because of their size or their physical location. Those who wish to write on the front page of RedState must make the same pledge. The reason for this is simple: once before, our nation was forced to repudiate the Supreme Court with mass bloodshed. We remain steadfast in our belief that this will not be necessary again, but only if those committed to justice do not waiver or compromise, and send a clear and unmistakable signal to their elected officials of what must be necessary to earn our support.

God bless America, and those who have taken time from their busy lives today to travel in the cold to Washington, DC to peacefully march in protest and remembrance. We stand with you.

We at RedState have ten items on which we would like your responses. We will print your responses to all ten items on the front page of RedState in the order in which they are received.

The ten items are:

1. Please state your qualifications for the job and why those qualifications make you the best choice.

2. Please explain how you see the role of RNC Chairman.

3. Please outline how you see the role of RNC Chairman in terms of structuring the Republican message and platform.

4. Please outline your goals for internal reform and/or restructuring of the RNC.

5. Please explain your vision for expanding the GOP’s use of technology in the future and, in light of that, explain your preferred structure for the online apparatus of the RNC.

6. Please explain what steps and resources you would use to rebuild, reform, or otherwise repair state Republican parties that need restoration and/or strengthening.

7. Please explain what criteria you would use to vet and recruit winnable candidates.

8. Please explain how you would recruit effective candidates for the 2010 United States Senate races and how you would help those candidates.

9. Please explain why the Republican Party should remain a pro-life party.

10. Please explain what benchmarks you think would be fair to measure an RNC Chairman to determine if that Chairman has succeeded or failed in his task.

This morning at 10 o’clock we’ll have a live chat with Senator Saxby Chambliss on the front page. Feel free to stop by and submit your questions to Senator Chambliss.

Likewise, we would encourage each of the candidates considering the RNC Chairman’s race to think about posting here at RedState why they are interested in being RNC Chairman. We’d be glad to put those posts on the front page.

— Lt.-Col. John McCrae

Today there are three U.S. Senate races currently unresolved: Norm Coleman faces a recount in his victory over Al Franken, Ted Stevens has a narrow lead in his re-election bid, and Saxby Chambliss faces a runoff on December 2 against his Democratic challenger. Chambliss deserves any support you can offer — financial or otherwise — and we urge all conservatives to do what they can to make sure he wins his runoff and returns to the Senate to fight for strong national defense, free markets, and a smaller government.

National Democrats have made the defeat of Saxby Chambliss one of their top priorities this cycle. They never forgave him for defeating Max Cleland in 2002, and they have resented his conservative stance on issue after issue. They recognize that Chambliss is a vote against Barack Obama’s agenda of tax increases, profligate spending, radical education policies, and surrender in the war on terror. They know that Chambliss can be counted on to sustain filibusters against card check and giveaways to liberal constituencies

Beyond that, the liberal leadership in Washington D.C. recognizes that Chambliss’ vote is critical. They have already secured 57 votes in the Senate, and if they manage to win the three remaining races, they’ll attain their longstanding goal of a filibuster-proof majority. We can’t count on our lawyers being shrewder than their lawyers in Alaska and Minnesota as the only way to preserve 41 votes in the U.S. Senate. We need a clean victory in Georgia that creative vote counting can’t take away.

As Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid begin to plan their agenda for the years ahead, conservatives must not let up until the 2008 elections are concluded. And that means doing everything we can to re-elect Saxby Chambliss today. After all, regardless what happens in other races, we can’t gamble that all Senate Republicans will stick together on every radical proposal from the Obama administration. Some may vote in favor of some Democratic initiatives; some may be replaced by Democrats in the next few years. In other words, 41 Senate Republicans may not be enough to prevent the enactment of terrible policies. We need to re-elect principled conservatives like Saxby Chambliss at every opportunity.

Please consider making a donation to Saxby Chambliss today. Or consider backing the effort of an independent group such as Freedom’s Watch, which is up and running in Georgia today with an ad that explains Jim Martin’s terrible record of tax increases:

And if you can’t donate to support this effort, there are other ways that you can help out. Please consider signing up as a volunteer. Anything you do today will help promote good government for the next 6 years — or more.

We now move to the leadership struggle for the House and Senate Republicans.

We have no preferences in these races yet. But we have a question that Messrs. McConnell, Boehner, and Blunt must answer:

How are you qualified to lead after two consecutive elections of significant losses?

There are others who are just as qualified to lead, some might argue more qualified to lead.

in the Senate, there are Senators Kyl and Cornyn. In the House, there are Congressmen Ryan of Wisconsin and Cantor of Virginia.

They are able men.

If Messrs. McConnell, Boehner, and Blunt cannot adequately explain why they deserve to keep the reins of power given two consecutive elections of losses, we must ask that they step aside.

The voters have spoken. They have rejected the status quo again. The present leadership is part of the same Republican status quo voters rejected two years ago — now rejected a second time.

The present leadership better have an excellent answer to the question posed.

Only a few years ago, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, writing to uphold affirmative action policies at the University of Michigan, speculated that the time would be ripe to reconsider racial preference policies in thirty years, after the nation has had more time to progress.

Thirty years came quickly.

The nation has moved beyond what was. We congratulate President-elect Obama on a well fought battle won well.

We also thank Senator McCain and urge Governor Palin to stay involved and engaged. (Pssst . . . Governor Palin, we’ve got room for one more contributor here if you’re interested.)

We now look forward to the fight ahead and we do intend to continue the fight for America.

We have been treated in recent weeks to an unfortunate procession of people on the Right lending their assistance to Barack Obama against the Republican presidential ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin. These people should never be listened to or employed in any responsible or prominent position by anyone in the Republican Party or the conservative movement again.

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Note – A previous version of this post was entitled “RedState Endorses Mark Begich, Democrat For Senate, and Ethan Berkowitz, Democrat for House At Large in Alaska.” We have changed the title and amended the post to retract the formal endorsement out of respect for RedState Contributors who did not feel they could be associated in good conscience with an endorsement of two pro-abortion Democrats (though we note that Ted Stevens is also not pro-life). However, our point remains: the GOP, the conservative cause and even specifically the pro-life cause will be better off if Stevens and Young are defeated and the tarnish they carry with them are excised from the GOP.

We stand at a perilous moment in American politics, with thereal possibility that the Democrats could get to 60 votes in the Senate. This is no time for litmus tests of party loyalty, for abandoning our own. But we must make one exception: good conscience compels us to advise Alaskans not to vote for Ted Stevens for Senate or Don Young for the at-large House seat in Alaska. We leave it to the individual voter whether to abstain or take the step of voting affirmatively for Mark Begich, the Democrat mayor of Anchorage, and candidate for the U.S. Senate, or for Ethan Berkowitz for the at-large House seat in Alaska.

We have no illusions that Begich will be a good Senator (although perhaps he can bring to DC some bipartisan oomph to theneed to exploit Alaska’s energy resources for the good of the nation), or Berkowitz a good Congressman. But Ted Stevens and Don Young have been a pox on the Republican house for too long – too addicted to the pork barrel, too fast and loose with ethics. Stevens’ conviction in federal court today is the exclamation pointon an era in Republican politics in general and Alaska politics in particular that needs to end (and which Gov. Sarah Palin has been battling to clean up). Republicans need to clean our own house. Washington cannot too soon see the end of Stevens and Young.

Barack Obama is the most left-wing major-party presidential candidate in modern history. The evidence of this is all over his record and his campaign. Yet for a variety of reasons, ranging from terminal frustration with the Bush Administration to swooning over Obama’s pop culture cache to buying Obama’s and the media’s spin that he’s really a mainstream figure to the right, not the left, of John Kerry, Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis and Howard Dean, we keep encountering moderates, independents, liberal Republicans and even self-identified conservatives who are willing to give Obama a chance in the White House. Even though America remains a center-right country, Obama leads in the major polls, and the odds currently favor his chances of winning the election, and of the unpopular Democratic Congress expanding its majorities to approach a filibuster-proof majority in the U.S. Senate, something the nation has not seen since the Great Society.

Our friends who take seriously the future of America as a non-left-wing country with a viable party of the Right should reconsider lending any support to this venture. Under the normal rules of politics, we would accept the idea that Obama, after winning, would inevitably overreach to the Left, leading to a backlash from which Republicans could rebuild a new and better GOP in 2010 and 2012, as we did in 1980 and 1994 after the last two Democratic presidents overreached and underperformed. But this assumes that Obama’s agenda will be mostly about policy, and will seek by traditional means to persuade a center-right voting public to support a European-style left-wing social-democrat government.

In fact, it is highly likely that Obama and the Congressional Democrats will instead concentrate major efforts on a number of longstanding policy priorities are aimed at stacking the deck to change the electorate and the political process themselves, and thus entrenching themselves in long-term power without ever needing again to persuade a center-right electorate to support their policies. Let’s look at a number of examples of things the Democrats are likely to do with their new majority to bring this about:

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There are troubling whispers in Washington that John McCain might soon endorse the Gang of 16 Energy Proposal. It would be a terrible mistake for John McCain to sign on to this plan. The plan is both bad politics and bad policy.

For the past several months, John McCain has ridden the energy issue, moreso than any other single issue, to the top of the polls. Governor Palin, one of the nation’s leading proponents of domestic energy production, further solidifies John McCain as the candidate who takes the energy issue seriously.

To endorse the Gang of 16 plan would undermine Senator McCain’s credibility on the issue. In addition to the terrible politics of the plan for Republicans, the plan itself is terrible, terrible policy.

*Right now, if we do nothing, the entire Outer Continental Shelf (“OCS”) will open up for exploration on October 1, 2008. * Under the Gang of 16 plan, most of the OCS, roughly 80%, will remain locked up. John McCain has favored opening up the OCS. His support of this plan would directly contradict his call for expanded exploration.

The plan would only allow drilling in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico and off the coasts of Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. Even then, it would not open up those areas, but allow those states to opt in to a burdensome, confiscatory federal leasing program. And still, drilling could not take place less than fifty miles from the coast, taking coastal reserves off the table.

The plan would also, for the first time, permanently ban drilling in all other OCS locations. Currently, the ban must be renewed annually.

10 billion barrels of oil and 18 trillion cubic feet of natural gas would be permanently untouchable off the Pacific Coast.

10 billion barrels of oil and 8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas would be permanently untouchable in ANWR.

2 billion barrels of oil and 18 trillion cubic feet of natural gas would be permanently untouchable in the Atlantic.

That is 29 years worth of imports from the Persian Gulf still untouchable and inaccessible because of the Gang of 16′s plan.

John McCain says he wants to decrease our dependence on foreign dictators. To endorse this plan to would give the lie to that claim.

Even worse, the Gang of 16 would add an additional $30 billion in tax increases to the energy industry. That is a tax increase they would pass on to consumers in the form of higher fuel prices. This is a punitive tax. Any Economics 101 student can tell you a punitive tax will hamper efforts, not expand efforts in the taxed industry. The Institute for Energy Research estimates 637,000 jobs would be lost because of the plan.

Likewise, the Gang of 16 would increase charges to oil companies for extraction of oil from the Gulf of Mexico. They would make it more expensive to drill for oil — a cost that would either keep the energy industry from drilling or drive up costs for consumers.

Lastly, the plan would do nothing to curtail environmentalist organizations from suing to stop expanded energy production ? a tactic that has successfully delayed and, in some cases, completely stopped exploration of domestic energy reserves.

John McCain and Sarah Palin say they are the real reformers. Driving up the costs of doing business and half hearted compromises are “politics as usual” solutions from Washington. Today, the opponents of buying American energy are on the ropes; this is no time to let them off the hook. A McCain-Palin Administration, if elected, will have an unambiguous mandate to expand all sources of domestic energy production, and will be able to command bipartisan support for a truly comprehensive energy solution.

John McCain should oppose the plan, and unleash Sarah Palin to demonstrate her experience and expertise on energy issues. And if today’s Congress can’t or won’t choose a real plan for domestic energy production, Sen. McCain, Gov. Palin and Capitol Hill Republicans should trust the American people to make that choice for them on Election Day.

This was not an uplifting, unifying, post-partisan speech.  It was a typical Democrat speech, an act of attack to disguise a record thinner than that of any president.  It was an act of religious prayer for the believers, not evangelism to the nonbelievers.  When he declared he would engage in specifics, he continued to offer even more promises without explanation of how or why – just that here was the thing wrong, and in electing him president, that alone would correct the wrong. 

And that is Obama’s greatest failing – for all his fancy promises of hope and change, at his core, he is just like every leftist messiah we have seen before: a man wandering the world convinced of his rightness and purity, with no answers to offer but the collapsed policies of the past. There was nothing new there other than a new face.

Barack Obama claims to offer change. He said several times tonight that John McCain had been in the Senate for so long that . . . well, we don’t really remember. The point was not memorable. What is memorable is that Joe Biden, Barack Obama’s pick for Vice President has been in the Senate longer than John McCain. In fact, Barack Obama attacked John McCain’s support of bankruptcy legislation that Joe Biden sponsored.

Throughout the night we were treated to Barack Obama yelling into the microphone telling us he was an agent of change. Reading his words, we are struck that Barack Obama really is an agent of change. He will change the policies of the last thirty years in favor of the populist, leftist policies advocated by Jimmy Carter.

The shallowness of Barack Obama came out in his speech. It really is all about him, despite what he claimed.

And Barack Obama is an agent of change we cannot afford.

In 1862, when some of Abraham Lincoln’s political allies, furious over the losses at Shiloh, demanded the removal of Ulysses S. Grant from the leadership of the Army of the Tennessee, the first Republican President responded with unequivocal fervor.

“I can’t spare this man,” Lincoln said. “He fights.”

What John McCain requires in a Vice Presidential choice today is an individual who exhibits the best qualities of an intelligent political fighter. He needs a hard worker – a loyal, principled leader – an individual whose reputation is above reproach. And we are convinced that in this case, the right choice is clear.

Pitted in a deadlocked campaign against an eloquent yet inexperienced young evangelist of Hope and Change, McCain requires an individual who with every argument will prove that the Obama-Biden ticket is uninterested in real change or reform. He or she must be equipped to make the case that the ideas they espouse today are the same tried and failed liberal solutions that Biden has supported in his 36 year Senate career – the vestiges of the Great Society made shiny and new for a generation of voters who has no memory of their destructive effects on the nation. He or she must possess a bright policy mind and a telegenic demeanor for explaining these policies in the course of the ongoing debate. And in an election this divisive, McCain’s choice must be prepared to fight for new areas of the voting populace, expanding the center-right footprint while simultaneously inspiring the portion of the grassroots base still unenthused with the top of the ticket, and not threaten to break the delicate coalition of the willing who have swallowed their pride to support a former political foe.

One of these tasks alone would not be easy – together, they seem nigh impossible. Yet it is our great fortune today to be blessed with an individual who has all of these qualities and abilities. He is a hard worker, bright, capable and principled. He is a family man, strong in his values, his faith, and his character. And he is truly a man of the right.

He is the Congressman from Virginia, Eric Cantor.

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We’ll get right to it. The Politico reports Senator John McCain is feeling out state parties on the issue of a pro-choice Vice Presidential pick and what effect such a choice would have on the base.

Make no mistake about it, it would so dishearten the base we can spend the next few months practicing saying “President Obama.”

In short, there is no room for negotiation on the issue. There is no choice but life on this issue.

Senator McCain should be mindful of his status – he was not the consensus first choice of a voting majority of Republicans in the presidential primary, and instead won by amassing enough plurality wins in key contests to achieve victory. And of his potential choices for Vice President, those who would sell out the pro-life movement would also offend numerous current McCain supporters on other significant issues as well.

Should Senator John McCain choose a pro-choice running mate, we are comfortably enough in touch with the Republican base to say without hesitation that the majority of the base would sit this race out. And we could not blame them for it.

Dear Mr. President,

Pursuant to Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution of the United States of America, you can compel the House of Representatives and Senate to convene in special session.

You, Mr. President, can force the Democrats to either vote on energy legislation or not.

Mr. President, members of your party are on the floor of the House of Representatives in the dark as we write this because the Speaker of the House turned off the lights on them and skipped town. The Republicans are fighting to reduce the price of gasoline at the pump. They are fighting for American families. Democrats have turned their backs on the American people.

Normally Mr. President, the American people are better served when Congress is not in session. At this time, however, you should call the Democrats’ bluff. Recall the Congress to Washington to vote on expanding domestic oil production.

Sincerely,

RedState.com

PS – You can call the White House and ask the President to call a Special Session. The number to call is 202-456-1111.

Let’s cut to the chase:  last week should have been a good week on Iraq for John McCain and it wasn’t.  In an ideal world, of course, every week should be a good week on Iraq for McCain.  It is his signature issue and he should be scoring points on it given the dramatic success that is manifesting itself in that country.  But last week he took two hits when he should have been landing punches.

We are not saying this is fair.  We are not saying we approve.  We are saying it is happening and if McCain doesn’t do something—soon—to correct the situation Iraq could become a big problem for his campaign and that is something he cannot afford.

It doesn’t have to be this way, though.  We have a suggestion that might change the tenor of the debate over Iraq and give McCain a big issue around which he can build other aspects of his campaign message.  Something positive, optimistic, forward looking—and, as icing on the cake, something Barack Obama cannot do.

Senator McCain should declare victory in Iraq.  And he should be generous in sharing the credit with our Iraqi allies.

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There are always a number of problems with the launch of a site like RedState onto a new platform. There are the load issues that you can only really experience when you experience them. There are the caching issues. There are the compatibility issues. Then there are the user interface issues where some people cough Gamecock cough get used to the site functioning one way and then have to get used to something new. We conservatives have more people like that than the other side because we aren’t too big on change.

But we’re here. Behind the scenes there are some issues we’re going to have to work on. Overall, however, the site is working. The feedback on the new interface has been tremendously positive. The general sense is that this platform is much easier to use. That’s what we hoped for.

Getting us to this point has not been easy. First, thanks to those of you who contributed to the effort.

Second, we want to thank our own Neil Stevens and Eagle Publishing’s Robert Melton and Henry Rivera. There are few indispensable people on this planet. But for us, these three gentlemen are indispensable and integral to us getting to this point.

Starting tomorrow, we’re going to kick things into high gear. We’ll have some posts from notable conservatives, a special 3.0 launch podcast with a great friend of RedState, and through out the week a lot of front page guest posters. Along the way, a select few of you will also discover you have access to RedHot.

Now, let us repeat one thing on here. We know there are some who just cannot get excited about the 2008 Presidential election. We intend to fight and win this election for the GOP. But if you find yourself having a hard time with that race, focus on your community, your state, your congressman, or a congressman of your choice. Use the Get Local option. Turn to the politics of your community and state. Aim, fight, and win. Politics ain’t beanbag, but it’s not all presidential politics all the time either.

At RedState, we continue to fight on and hope you’ll stick with us for the fight ahead.