The "Carterization" Of Barack Obama

Barack Obama talks so much about hope, but I can’t find anything hopeful about an Obama administration. What is hopeful about repealing the greatest tax cut in history? What is hopeful about pulling U.S troops out of Iraq, only to bomb such an unstable area as Pakistan? What is hopeful about rewarding such repressive leaders such as Kim Jong Ill and the Ayatollah of Iran by negotiating with them? (Like they care about anyone’s hope.) What is hopeful about increasing the “size and scope” of the federal establishment by more than 800 billion dollars? The answer to all those questions is absolutely nothing. On the contrary, the prospect of such an inexperienced man such as Obama, leading the free world in a time like this is essentially hopeless.

However conservatives would like to spin it, Obama isn’t going to go away. There are tons of hypothetical situations in which one could predict this man’s future, and none of them are good for conservatives. That’s why I think that it might be best to get four years of an Obama presidency over with. I would definitely rather deal with him now, than perhaps four years from now, where he is more polished and more experienced. Also, if he ran in 2012, he would be a lot more likely to win a second term in 2016, because we would be coming off twelve straight years of Republican rule. That doesn’t mean that I will vote for him, however it just means that I think the sooner he is president, the sooner that the conservative movement will be reborn.

Take into consideration 1976. In that election year America was in a terrible recession and we were coming off eight years of a very unpopular Republican administration. Americans demanded change, and for better or worse, Jimmy Carter gave it to them. Jimmy Carter’s 1976 campaign was similar to Obama’s in many ways, both of them were very inexperienced, and both of them were hard to pin down on almost very issue. As it turned out however, President Carter turned out to have one of the worst presidencies in the twentieth century. Then came 1980. Maybe, just maybe if we can endure a train wreck of an Obama administration, then we will have something new to offer, and America could be better for it.

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William F. Buckley (1925-2008) R.I.P

One of the great leaders of Conservatism died yesterday at his home in New York. I don’t know much about Bill Buckley, but I know that he influenced some of the greatest public servants of our time. People such as Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater wouldn’t have been able to have done what they did without Bill Buckley. He started National Review when he was 29, in 1955. He is an inspiration to me, and I think that all bloggers who claim to care about the conservative movement should aspire to be like him.

Godspeed, WFB.

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Will Conservatives Settle With John McCain?

I would hate to burst anyone’s bubble, but it looks to me like John McCain will be the GOP nominee for president. I don’t really have a problem bringing myself to vote for Senator McCain personally, but I haven’t resolved with myself whether or not I can vote for what I feel is bound to be a losing campaign. As I have said earlier, by nominating McCain, Republicans are subscribing to what I call “The Doctrine of Dole”, which is obviously the GOP tradition of nominating the “next in line” candidate. That practice has somewhat of an establishment feel, which is weird, because the traditional conservatives in the party are doing their absolute best to give the old bulldog hell.

Conservatives should rightly be suspicious of some of Senator McCain’s positions. (Campaign-Finance Reform, Immigration) Indeed, in some issues, Senator McCain is anything but conservative. To the social conservatives who might be reading, you have the least to fear from McCain. He has been pro-life for his whole career in Congress, and he has been very solid in voting for constitutionalist judges. The beautiful thing about John McCain in that regard is that he won’t change. However, for fiscal conservatives, unfortunately, again, he won’t change. He disappoints me in this aspect. I don’t feel that Senator McCain truly understands the basic principles of economic freedom. It seems weird to me that Barry Goldwater’s successor would vote against any tax cut, and for me, there is never a good reason to oppose a tax cut.

In all these shortcomings, it’s easy for one to overlook John McCain’s virtues. Senator McCain is one of those rare politicians who will not compromise their principles for anything. I got a new National Review in the mail today, and I think that they described McCain’s brand of politicking very well. They elude that he doesn’t make decisions like normal politicians. Where as normal politicians would live by their ideology or the will of their constituents, John McCain makes decisions completely based on personal honor. For instance, McCain is a Republican mainly due to the honor that he feels he is bound to Ronald Reagan because of his support of POW’s while he was Governor of California. His image as a maverick is probably rooted in this belief. There are probably better ways to govern than this, but there are also far worse ways to govern.

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Al-Qaeda Is Still Important In 2008

This last week, on Fox News Sunday, I watched Chris Wallace interview Mike McConnell, President Bush’s National Intelligence Adviser. I couldn’t catch the entire interview, but I have a feeling that Mr. McConnell’s presence on the show had something to do with President Bush’s “Protect America” wire-tapping legislation. ( Which the Democrats are probably right in refusing passage of.) Anyway, Mr. McConnell consistently eluded to the fact that Al-Qaeda, although not as strong as they were before September 11th, are now presently gaining strength abroad. Mr. McConnell got a message across to me, but it had nothing to do with wire-tapping.

The interview reminded me how badly the War on Terror has been managed in the past five years or so. For some reason, during that interview I became upset at the fact that such a violent group as Al-Qaeda still exists in a post 9/11 world. The fact is that after nearly seven years, Al-Qaeda has changed us more than we have changed them. Al-Qaeda’s terrorists might be willing to fall by American bullets, but I for one am not willing to see more U.S Servicemen and women die in conformity to such an extremist agenda as Islamic Jihad.

The war on Islamic Extremism must be an issue in this upcoming General Election. I believe that the American people must be made to see how monumentally important are purpose is against freedom hating terrorism. We must win in Iraq mainly because we as a nation don’t want to repeat the mistakes we made there elsewhere. In other words, we don’t wnt to provide Al-Qaeda with another playground on which to slaughter our troops. Because of that, in the General Election, I will vote for whoever I think will wisely and aggressively pursue Al-Qaeda with all their might.

In closing, during the McConnell interview a highly inspirational yet slightly comforting thought came to me; How would Reagan handle Al-Qaeda? I have a feeling that all of us should know that answer. You see, in the 1980’s, we had a different sort of enemy which sought to undermine our freedom. That enemy was the Soviet Union. President Reagan understood that, in order to win the Cold War, the Soviet State would have to cease to exist. Similarly, in order to win the war on terror, Al-Qaeda must cease to exist. Whoever our next president should be, they would be wise to follow President Reagan’s example.

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Apologies For Blog Neglect

If this blog were a child, then Social Services would have taken custody of it from me a long time ago. Hmmm. Anyway, if anyone cared about my 9 day abscence, then I am truly sorry. I have missed several important events, including my very own, “Potomac” Primary. ( By the way, I was proud as a first-time voter, to chose Gov. Mike Huckabee as my preference as the GOP Presidential nominee.) I promise I’ll get some well thought out posts soon. Again, sorry for the neglect.

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Mitt Romney Drops Out.

I didn’t see this coming at all. Mitt Romney decided to drop out of the race for the GOP nomination yesterday at CPAC. Talk Radio and the GOP establishment are, needless to say, probably going to descend into a state of panic, and quite frankly, I have no idea what National Review is going to write about now.

Apparently, Gov. Romney personally conceded that he no longer had a chance of winning the nominaton. Although he probably could have stayed in a bit longer, I think that he made the right decision. Being that if he had stayed in until the convention, it would have possibly led in a brokered convention, and that would have probably divided the party greatly.

In light of Gov. Romney’s decision, I would like to say two things. Firstly, I have no animosity for Gov. Romney, however, I really regret the way that he ran his campaign. He tried to be all things to all conservatives, and that was difficult to do considering that he had the record of a moderate, both socially and fiscally. He would have had a much better shot with my support if he was honest about his political ideology. He also made the primary season very unpleasant to watch. It really was a headache, in the midst of the GOP’s identity crisis, to watch one of our potentially strongest candidates to sling so much negativity around.

Secondly, If a former Romney supporter happens to be reading this, I would like to extend an invitation to them to give Gov. Mike Huckabee another chance. Like Mitt Romney, Huckabee was a very successful governor of a prominently democratic state. Like Mitt Romney, Huckabee is a strong family man, and will protect traditional marriage and the rights of the unborn. With the help of some Romney supporters, we could turn around this McCain “inevitability” and give a great man a chance to become president.

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The Movement Continues………

For a couple of days before “Super Tuesday”, I was beginning to doubt if Mike Huckabee’s canidacy would last. I wasn’t saying publicly anything discouraging about it, but I was beginning to have my concerns. The media constantly had been ignoring him since South Carolina, and I thought that Huckabee would lose Georgia and some other states to Romney, but I was wrong.

Huckabee’s wins on Tuesday night completely overwhelmed my expectations. It is essential for any Republican candidate to win in the South in order to win a general election, and Huckabee is obviously the only candidate who can win there.

Once again, this is an example that if voters are presented with a clear unadulterated, unpolitical, conservative choice, that they will choose that. Romney and McCain are both 20th Century politicians. Mike Huckabee is an authentic, new kind of public-servant, and the south recognized that. As a native, born and raised southerner, ( I now live in Maryland.) I couldn’t be more proud.

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