Update: What goes up, must come down. Even Obama's polling numbers.
Things may be going decidedly Left for now. But between the Tea Party movement, which is still going strong - improving tactics through input and cooperation - and Michael Barone just happening to point out today that enthusiasm is key, add all that to a heads up I just got - and we shouldn't be hanging our heads as we roll ahead to 2010. If we switch the Senate, dent the House big, Obama's going to need a whole new game plan. And it won't just be his. It'll be read as a rejection of his big government ways.
Liberty and Tyranny will be #1 non-fiction, hard cover on NYT list for 11 of 12 weeks. In 19 printings, 1,047,000 books in print.
Probably the most successful book on conservatism in decades.
If Republicans play their cards right, we could be holding a winning hand by then. All this energy just has to be cashed in for votes.
"If Republicans play their cards right ...." ????
There is not a chance in hell.
Posted by: kasper | Wednesday, June 17, 2009 at 06:27 PM
The gay group is pretty angry at that offer today. They are saying that it was only proposed because they withdrew their checkbooks.
Posted by: lala | Wednesday, June 17, 2009 at 06:42 PM
Okay, Kasper - if they don't play them too poorly. How about we setle for that?
Yeah, lala - the dude is getting busted for amateurish moves, Left and Right.
Posted by: Dan Riehl | Wednesday, June 17, 2009 at 06:45 PM
Cable viewership numbers are out
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/06/17/cable-news-tv-ratings-for-tuesday-june-16/20970
Posted by: lala | Wednesday, June 17, 2009 at 06:49 PM
Kasper is probably correct, Dan.
What bugs me is Conservatism's fault - the 40% - in permitting the Liberal 21% to dominate in Government. It's near terminal electile dysfunction. It happens because Conservatives - as Republicans - accept the Big Lie: "To win, Republicans must appeal to the Center." What utter, contemptible BS.
It's time to eschew the word "moderate:" "The Center" is hardly an ideologically monolithic bloc. It's composed of "Centrists", "Moderates", "Undecideds", the Confused, the Uninformed and a whole lot of Uncommitted shoppers looking for a Party who will represent their wallets from election to election. Yet, in the face of tyranny, there is no honour in being "moderate." In the face of Tyranny, we are told that we need to "appeal" to this rot.
Don't buy it.
That huge midriff glut we call the Centre has enough electoral potential for Conservative candidates if they merely represent themselves as... Conservatives. There is so much to offer within the Conservative and Libertarian marketplace... Work on our base with a solid Conservative-Libertarian message and enough followers in the Centre will be ours. The result will be a huge statistical advantage.
Kasper's point rests on the fact that 'Republican' has only one N, much like the typical "conservatives" servicing liberal media.
Levin's message is that we, all of us, need to grow a full set and bolt 'em on. This is going to be a very bumpy ride.
Posted by: Ran | Wednesday, June 17, 2009 at 06:55 PM
In order to appeal to the broadest possible base, Republicans should return to Liberty as a first principle. However, this will require them to apply this principle in all aspects - social and economic - in order to have the desired effect.
Posted by: Jamie Lockett | Wednesday, June 17, 2009 at 06:59 PM
Electile disfunction. Perfect, Ran.
Posted by: lala | Wednesday, June 17, 2009 at 07:14 PM
hate to do it, kasper is correct.
my favorite question, excerpt.
"The President and the Congress should worry more about boosting the economy even though
it may mean larger budget deficits now and in the future."
'boosting' the economy...
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=boost
trust me, it's getting "boosted".
Posted by: mark l. | Wednesday, June 17, 2009 at 07:42 PM
Jamie, where is Social or Economic Justice in the Bill of Rights or Constitution?
Look, Bud the Tenth Amendment places LIMITS what the Federal Government can meddle or fool with.
The back to Basic approach is Constitutional, not the Socialistic approach that Team Obama is trying to pull. Socialist values are not going to work. After unemployment hits 15% probably in late Summer
the Hope and Change rhetoric will be proven FRAUDULENT and America will know it. The Pretender POTUS will be seen as violating the Constitution as well as the Socialist leaders in Congress.
Then there will be Justice in Court or the Streets.
Posted by: Old Trooper | Wednesday, June 17, 2009 at 09:03 PM
Spot on, Ran.... spot on!
It was Barry Goldwater himself who said once...
"--- Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. ---"
He also said:
"--- A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you have. ---"
AND, for the trifecta (Drum roll please!)
"--- I will offer a choice, not an echo. ---"
(Yes, I cheated and looked up the "vice/virtue" quote, and found the other two which very succinctly tell the root of should be conservative thought to the masses - providing a clear cut choice to the so-called "great meandering middle".
Liberty - or death by taxation.
And (political) salvation should not be trusted to the neanderthals and trained chimpanzees currently running the RNC.
Indeed, the GOP CANNOT even be trusted to find their way to the poker game, much less bring a winning hand to the table.
When they stop sending me the same tired, (mis)leading questionnaires and then begging me for donations and start to lay hold to concept of promoting LIBERTY over statism and socialism, then I might re-consider tossing them a few extra bucks.
And Jamie, the goad in the works over social vs. economic vs. ???
Well, "A just balance is the Lord's delight, but a false scale He abhors".
We are for the most part, a nation that still fears God. Our forefathers, yes, even those wacky guys in wigs who lived in the days of Rousseau and Locke and Voltaire whom we "officially" know as Deists and freemasons and what-have you... they feared God, and had sense enough to not only frame a nation and her constitution, but also supported a social ethic that did not smile upon bringing things out in public which were best kept in the privacy of one's home.
Liberty does not equal licentiousness, nor does it need spawn "social liberalism" as we have it today.
Posted by: seekeronos | Thursday, June 18, 2009 at 12:29 AM
Old Trooper,
You completely misread what I wrote. Please read it again - I never mention social or economic justice.
Posted by: Jamie Lockett | Thursday, June 18, 2009 at 01:26 AM