On Tuesday night, history was made as President Barack Obama addressed the joint houses of Congress for the first time. I, however, didn’t watch the President’s speech at all. People tend to not enjoy my company whenever Obama speaks, because I always seem to feel an inexplicable urge to respond to every statement that he makes.
Truthfully, I was much more interested in watching Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana deliver the Republican response to President Obama. Gov. Jindal is an amazing conservative who has completely turned around the state of Louisiana. Considering that many consider Gov. Jindal to be a “rising star’ in the GOP, I was very interested to see how he would fare in his first prime time speech.
I was pretty disappointed. Although the substance in his speech was good, Gov. Jindal appeared to be uncomfortable reading from a teleprompter. I also think that his delivery didn’t encourage anyone to actually take seriously what he was saying. In short, he came across as too nice. In Gov. Jindal’s case, for him to be taken seriously as a speaker, he needs to come across as more determined and aggressive than he was on Tuesday night.
The most influential figures in politics are always able to communicate a message effectively. Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and now Barack Obama have all proven this. For Republicans to take back the White House in 2012, we need someone who is capable of communicating the conservative message strongly and effectively. In my view, the only person who can currently do that is Mike Huckabee.
It is way too early to endorse a candidate for 2012, however, if all the “potential” Republican candidates were to announce today, I would have to again endorse Mike Huckabee. I’m not writing off anyone, but if Bobby Jindal and Sarah Palin intend to elevate their political careers any further, they need to specialize their messages, so that voters in primary states will take them seriously. I think that Govs. Jindal and palin are both great public servants, but if they are the best and brightest that we can offer, then they better improve on their communication skills.
I did not write this, but I wanted to post it on my blog from the first moment I read it. I offered for the author to post this as a guest blogger, but they preferred to remain anonymous. Please feel free to join in and leave your observations concerning how we can work to make the Republican Party relevantly conservative once again.
Ditch the old guard! If Tuesday showed us anything it told us it is time to move on. Goodbye to the Doles, Bushes, and McCain’s. Thank you but you are the past. We need new leadership NOW. We need fresh ideas yesterday. We need young faces of tomorrow. The GOP MUST abandon its addiction to establishment candidates.
Sweep out the dust! State GOP chairs who have blindly and stupidly marched lock step with Bush and his party leadership need to suffer the consequences and be voted out of office or resign in shame. Two years ago they had a unique opportunity to correct course and they made matters worse by giving Bush a leadership that split the party over immigration. In the words of one of their own “It is time, it is time for them to go.”
Clean house! The house leadership team MUST be replaced with younger conservatives who will reassure the base. The leadership needs to also intentionally consider that it reflect the face of America: Eric Cantor, Marsha Blackburn would be good places to start. As few old establishment guys who smoke as possible PLEASE!
Embrace who you are! Be conservative or not but figure it out and stop apologizing for whatever the heck it is you believe. If you are social conservative, economic conservative, and a federalist – do your homework for goodness sake and know how to defend yourself. Other wise you look like a phony who has faked it so you can have power.
Vote in some minorities and women for crying out loud! Hello! The reason McCain picked Palin was because he needed an executive who was a woman and could solidify his base (particularly social conservatives) – it’s not his fault the party only has one out there you bone heads have elected. How many times do you think quality African American candidates will put them selves up for election knowing they will suffer the scorn of their own race just to have the party only halfheartily support them? Crawl on your knees to Lynn Swan, Ken Blackwell, Michael Steele, and J. C. Watts and tell them you will do whatever it takes.
Develop an in depth deliberate media strategy to overcome the UNBELIEVABLE media bias advantage for the donkeys. It needs to reveal relentless exposure and an all out war against the main stream elite media. It needs to include the development of alternative media and strengthening of talk radio and conservative Internet.
The senate is our only line of legislative defense – get nasty and never, never, never give in. How many times are your donkey friends in the senate going to have to kick you before you realize they have no intention of playing nice?
OK guys its time some of you got a reality check – elite country club republicanism and Washington insider establishment republicanism does not win elections. IT NEVER HAS. Stop trying to run off the guys who put you in power and belittle our leaders such as Huckabee and Palin. We are your party. Get used to it or chose to keep losing.
How does a candidate “win” a presidential debate? On Friday, Sept. 26, John McCain and Barack Obama met for their first presidential debate in Oxford, Mississippi. The debate was supposedly to be focused on foreign policy, where John McCain would have a natural advantage over Barack Obama. However, the debate didn’t turn out as anyone would have expected. Firstly, Obama didn’t embarrass himself, and secondly, over half of the debate was focused on the economic crisis.
The general verdict from the media was that the two candidates battled to a draw, with Barack Obama emerging as the winner by default. I, however, came away with an entirely different impression. It seemed to me that Sen. Obama was on the defensive for most of the ninety minute debate. He had to withdraw some of his arguments, and used the lame debate tactics of agreeing with his opponent, ( “Sen. McCain is absolutely correct.), and countering his opponents attacks with a simple, “that’s not true.” Initially, I couldn’t understand how anyone who watched the debate could think that Barack Obama won.
Last Thursday night, Sarah Palin completely discredited my prior judgement. This time, it was my candidate who was emphathizing with the audience. My candidate was looking good on T.V, and my candidate was effectively communicating to the audience. Once again, I thought my candidate had won the debate.
It wasn’t until the post debate analysis on T.V that I began to notice a double standard. All three political correspondants on the major networks declared Joe Biden the winner, apparently using the same standard that I had judged the first debate by. In this race’s debates, the nature of the candidates running has ensured that there will be no clear winners or losers. In the remaining debates, I think that it is safe to predict that Barack Obama will be more effective at communicating, and John McCain will prove more effective at actually debating.
On the Saturday Night Live post debate analysis, I think that Amy Poehler was right when she said that “whoever you already liked” won the VP debate.
Recently, I have been extremely reluctant to watch election coverage from any of the major news media outlets. However, this is not to say that I haven’t tried to give the main-stream media the benefit of the doubt. I am usually, albeit, naively prone to assume that the main-stream media’s job is to provide objective coverage and commentary of current events. Unfortunately however, when I have recently acted on these assumptions, I have either ended up turning the T.V off, or walking out of the room.
Don’t get me wrong, I have always known that nearly all major news networks are biased in some way. It’s just that ever since Sarah Palin’s introduction unto the national stage, there has been no effort to present election news in an objective manner at all.
I don’t think that it is necessary for me to point out that Sarah Palin has been subjected to a brand of scrutiny and interrogation that Barack Obama never had to encounter. Not only that, but the McCain campaign in general is being unfairly judged and critiqued by the press. For example, the Washington Post’s E.J Dionne Jr. recently said, “ The (McCain) campaign is a blur of flying pieces of junk, lipstick, and gutter style attacks…McCain has shown that he wants the presidency so badly that he’s willing to say anything, true or false, to win power.”
Wow. We could have really used Mr. Dionne’s enlightened reporting during the Clinton Administration.
It’s no secret that the news media has been giving Sen. Obama their adoration for months now, but to quote Sen.Obama himself, “Enough is enough.” The main-stream media needs to do something before they lose all their credibility with the American people. Voters aren’t so stupid as to realize that when Obama’s experience is questioned, it’s called, “gutter style attacks”, but when Sarah Palin’s family and faith is scrutinized, it’s calmly referred to as, “questions that need to be answered.”
Quite frankly, I’m tired of all news networks with political agendas. The left side is obviously lead by MSNBC, CNN, and all the major news networks, while the right side is lead by FOX News, which claims to be “fair and balanced.” I’m just left wondering when news networks decided to trade their reporters for political suckers.
In the midst of my disgust, I find myself thankful that I don’t rely on any of these networks to educate me about what should be my political philosophy. If someone would just report the news, then no one else would have to either.
Like many historic political figures, Barack Obama’s greatest moment occurred right before his inevitable decline. Two weeks ago, Sen. Obama made history by being the first African American Presidential nominee of a major political party. Before a packed stadium, and on an elaborate stage styled by Greek Mythology, Sen. Obama told Americans that anything is possible in this great country, that we as a people can do anything, and that he was living proof of this truth.
I’m proud to live in a country where something like this can happen. All Americans should be proud. In the words of Gov. Mike Huckabee, “Party or politics aside, we celebrate this milestone because it elevates us as a country.“ Gov. Huckabee was right to commend Sen. Obama for his accomplishment.
However, the next morning an even greater accomplishment of sen. Obama’s became apparent when his opponent, Sen. John McCain, chose Sarah Palin as his vice presidential nominee. With all the attention and adulation directed elsewhere, it became apparent that Sen. Obama had rooted and grown his amazing campaign on two very shallow things, personality and media coverage. Never before in a campaign had the difference between adulation and achievement been so great, and never before had thousands of democrats hit themselves in the head so hard at the same time.
In the few weeks that have followed, it has become glaringly obvious that the Democratic Party chose the wrong person to be their presidential nominee. They could have had the popular, pragmatic liberalism of Hillary Clinton, but instead they got an inexperienced U.S Senator who is barely halfway through his first term of office.
Adding to the Democratic problem was the selection of Joe Biden as the party’s VP nominee. Initially, Sen. Biden appeared to be the working class balance to Obama’s Ivy league appeal, however, the Democrats really got someone who reminds most people of a used car salesman with amnesia.
Political gravity is inevitable. What goes up, must come down. However, if Sen. Obama’s ship could rise for a year, than maybe John McCain and Sarah Palin can stay on top for seven weeks.
Surge in the polls, that is. As of today, Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin are leading their Democratic Counterparts by ten points nationally, according to the latest Gallup/USA Today poll. We are one week out of the Republican National Convention, and the McCain/Palin campaign has now done what formerly looked to be impossible; to take away the “change” theme, and much less the momentum, from Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
When Barack Obama chose Joe Biden as his running mate, I foresaw the effect that it could potentially make on the dynamics of the campaign. For a campaign that prided itself on defying conventional thinking, Obama took the safe and predictable road by choosing Joe Biden as his VP nominee. This mistake left the McCain campaign with an opportunity to upstage the Democrats, and they did.
On April 11, I endorsed Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as my preferred choice for the VP slot on the Republican ticket. I argued that Gov. Palin would bring freshness and a sense of reform to the ticket, thus improving its chances to win in November. I wasn’t feeling very hopeful for a McCain/Palin ticket afterwords, but I stuck by my conclusion that Gov. Palin was still the best choice.
The addition of Sarah Palin to the Republican ticket has dynamically changed the political landscape in America. It has been successfully illustrated that our nation’s best chance for a fundamental change in Washington lies in voting for the McCain/Palin ticket.
I wasn’t going to take credit for being right, but I felt compelled to when I saw Bill Kristol say “I told you so” on Fox News Sunday. If he can take credit for something he said in June, than I thought I should let everyone know that I called it in April.
Well, The polls are in favor of McCain/Palin, and I was right.
There’s no reason to pretend. The only person of significance last night at the Republican National Convention was Sarah Palin. I don’t think that I can recall a speech with more riding on it than Gov. Palin’s speech last night. In the midst of the media frenzy surrounding her, Gov. Palin came out swinging. She not only showed the national media that she would not be intimidated, but she also showed them that they are objectively wrong in trying to decrease the Republican ticket’s chances of getting elected in November. She had quite a few zingers. Some of my favorites were, “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a “community organizer,” except that you have actual responsibilities.” , and, “when the cloud of rhetoric has passed … when the roar of the crowd fades away … when the stadium lights go out, and those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot – what exactly is our opponent’s plan?”’
Honestly, I feel sorry for anyone who is unfortunate enough to get in this woman’s way. Her speech last night might have come across as a little confrontational, but I don’t blame her. In fact, I don’t think that she could afford to come out as less than confrontational. With all the unfair judgments that the media has thrust upon both Gov. Palin and her family, it was necessary for her to show everyone that she too can play hardball. I congratulate Gov. Palin, for doing exactly what needed to be done, and saying exactly what needed to be said.
To watch the other speakers from last night, click here.
