Shot in the Dark

Post-Mortem

One of my biggest worries coming out of the 2000 Republican Convention as a disappointed Forbes supporter was the thought that the party had turned into a support mechanism for George W. Bush more than for a set of first principles.

Jay Reding noticed the same thing, and examines its role, among other things, in McCain’s defeat:

From 2000 on, the GOP was unified around George W. Bush. From about 2005 on, Bush was as toxic as a mortgage-backed security. Political movements based around single individuals do not tend to last, and by hitching their wagons to Bush, the Republican Party sowed the seeds of their own downfall…

…The failure of the McCain campaign must be tied to the failure of the Bush Presidency. He fought on a completely uneven playing field. The media was in the tank for Obama, and the Democratic machine was energized. But that doesn’t excuse the mistakes of the McCain campaign. They had the right message in the “Country First” theme, but they never really used it effectively. McCain could have won, but it would have taken an incredibly smart campaign to have done it. Instead, the McCain campaign went for the tried-and-true techniques of Bush 2000 and 2004—in a political climate that could not have been more different.

Via whatever means, the GOP needs to reorganize itself – and fast – around conservatism’s first principles, and providing a meaningful alternative to the Dems. 

Clearly, the party showed that where we do this – for example, the Third and Sixth Districts – the message resonates with people:  liberty, prosperity, security, culture, limited government and family works as a message.  Certainly better than “better than the other guys, plus with earmarks!”

Oh, yeah – while the GOP became the Bush Party for  a couple of terms,  Jay notes…:

(Note that the Democrats are doing the same with Obama now. Sic transit gloria mundi.)

I’m waiting to see what happens when people wake up and find out Obama’s not going to give them bread and circuses pay their gas and mortgage bills.

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42 responses to “Post-Mortem”

  1. flash Avatar
    flash

    “”conservatism’s first principles, and providing a meaningful alternative to the Dems.

    Clearly, the party showed that where we do this – for example, the Third and Sixth Districts – the message resonates with people: liberty, prosperity, security, culture, limited government and family works as a message.””

    ===

    You have got to be kidding. The 3rd and the 6th were won through deceptive smear politics, attacking and casting aspersion on the opponents. Paulson all but hid from the issues and there was hardly any discussion at all of any of the characteristics you mention. When Bachmann did speak of her brand of liberty and security ie Lets investigate congress for anti Americanism, she almost shot herself in the foot.

    Seriously, you can’t re-write history, it is what it is.

  2. angryclown Avatar
    angryclown

    Also, maybe consider that it’s possible to win elections without nominating the stupidest person in the party. First Bush, then Palin. Looks like Trig is the smart one in that family.

  3. Chuck Avatar
    Chuck

    What did Ayres say? The Republicans made him into some kind of clown?

  4. Loren Avatar
    Loren

    Don’t forget that in the Sixth, the Party pulled its support as soon as the contest heated up.

  5. angryclown Avatar
    angryclown

    By the way, good to see you wingnuts are taking Mitch’s advice to be classy about Obama’s election.

    http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/11/05/2008-11-05_gang_angry_at_barack_obama_win_beat_me_s-1.html

  6. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    the stupidest person in the party

    Oh, silly disingenuous clown! You call EVERYONE we nominate “the stupidest person in the party”.

  7. angryclown Avatar
    angryclown

    At least McCain knows Africa’s a continent.

  8. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    At least McCain knows Africa’s a continent.

    So disaffected McCain staffers are suddenly unimpeachable sources?

    You must LOVE Dick Morris.

    (They were lying, by the way).

  9. Chad The Elder Avatar
    Chad The Elder

    Can’t get enough of the Down’s Syndrome humor can you AC? Classy.

  10. Mr. Shirt Avatar
    Mr. Shirt

    Douglas MacArthur did not go to Isoroku Yamamoto for strategy advice. Yamamoto would have certainly lead MacArthur to his demise, & would have gone down in history as the man who destroyed America.

    Likewise Republicans should not let the common “wisdom” of leftist zealots sway us from the foundations that formed this country & made it like no other in the world.

    Trying to bring in the left is exactly what brought on the destruction of GWB. McCain would have been 3rd verse same as the first only louder, in that regard. It’s time for real change!

    So while the left begins to choke on their new cult-of-personality, Conservatives, need to rediscover their classical liberal (as in liberty, as in freedom of individuals) roots & stand hard & fast upon them. They are truth!

  11. Chuck Avatar
    Chuck

    “Oh, silly disingenuous clown! You call EVERYONE we nominate “the stupidest person in the party”.

    You must read Ann Coulter’s chapter on “Republican’s are dumb”. She runs through quotes by Democrats, in chronological order. Each Republican running for Pres and VP is the dumbest ever.

  12. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    taking Mitch’s advice to be classy about Obama’s election. [link omitted].

    What? It’s news that New Yorkers are a bunch of savages that’d resort to cannibalism if the firm hand of the NYPD weren’t hovering just around the corner? Shocking, I know.

    No, I was thinking more like this.

  13. angryclown Avatar
    angryclown

    Not true, of course. Palin, Quayle, Shrub: stupid.

    Bush 41, Dole, Kemp, McCain: smart enough

    Nixon, Cheney: evil geniuses

    Democrats are looking for another Kennedy. You kooks are looking for another Reagan. As a consequence, you tend to regard stupid as a positive leadership quality.

  14. swiftee Avatar
    swiftee

    “be classy about Obama’s election”

    At least this kids was smart enough to claim a weapon was used that was impossible to get backwards.

    Baseball bats don’t have polarity.

  15. swiftee Avatar
    swiftee

    Nixon was one of the best Presidents we’ve had. Until the day he died, sitting Presidents called him on the sly for advice. His problem was paranoid personality disorder, not evil intent.

  16. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    Not true, of course.

    Naturally, not nuanced enough.

    Any Republican can be “smart enough”, when he/she is not a contender or a threat.

    Bush41, Mac, Kemp and Dole are all “smart enough” now that they’re retired. When they were contenders, they were all “stupid” or worse.

    Sorta like McCain; “Maverick” was every Democrat and media outlet’s (pardon the redundancy) favorite Republican, until he actually got endorsed. Then he was a crazy old man – until his career ended. Now he’s “smart enough”.

    If Palin retired from politics tomorrow, all the “Palin be dum” stuff would disappear overnight.

  17. Troy Avatar
    Troy

    I am glad that we can see some of the “data” angryclown uses:

    “At least McCain knows Africa’s a continent”

    to judge the intelligence of Republican candidates. It makes it so much easier to dismiss “angryclowns list of dummies”.

  18. Troy Avatar
    Troy

    flash said:

    “Seriously, you can’t re-write history, it is what it is”

    Why is that, flash. You seem to give it a go with every other comment. *shrug*

    Boo! I mean, Scaifenet!

  19. Terry Avatar
    Terry

    There used to be a guy who was the perennial American Party candidate in Minnesota for much of the 60’s & 70’s. I think he was a one-time broadcaster or news anchorman. Paul something.
    Anyway, the American Party is a conservative, nativist party. Paul was a proud member of Mensa & he routinely accused intellectuals and academics of having a ‘yardstick problem’. By this he meant that they used different measures for intelligence with conservatives than they do with liberals.
    Reagan was a college grad who majored in economics. He was the president of SAG for seven years. He was the governor of California for two tumultuous terms. He was elected and re-elected to the presidency by landslide. Yet to the left he’s a dunce.
    Obama was the chief editor of Harvard Law Review. He’d never run a hard campaign until this year. Other than writing two autobiographies, that’s all that is on his resume.
    Yet the left considers him a genius, easily qualified to head the executive branch of the richest & most powerful nation in the world.
    “Yardstick problem”.

  20. angryclown Avatar
    angryclown

    Hey, I just heard Obama was made an honorary Viet Cong, he beat McCain so bad.

  21. angryclown Avatar
    angryclown

    Mitch observed: “If Palin retired from politics tomorrow, all the “Palin be dum” stuff would disappear overnight.”

    You and I agree, Mitch. If she decides to use her talents to become a game show host (no geography please!) or corporate spokes-bim, nobody will worry that she’s too dumb. When you’re applying to be first in line to the presidency behind an old dude with a huge cancer-pouch on his face, however, people tend to want somebody who knows a few countries beyond the ones she can see from her house.

    And when I say “people” I mean “non-wingnuts.” But that should go without saying.

  22. Terry Avatar
    Terry

    AC, you sound like you must be praying that Obama live through both terms. Or else it’ll be “Hello President Biden!”

  23. Chad The Elder Avatar
    Chad The Elder

    AC-

    McCain was held prisoner by the North Vietnamese not the VC. You and Peev must have studied history together. Or perhaps you’re taking your history lessons from Joe “FDR was appearing on TV as president in 1929” Biden. He was the “smart” VP candidate, right?

  24. angryclown Avatar
    angryclown

    See, Mitch, conservatives aren’t funny. Just dig Chad the Old Dude.

    Chad, my good fellow, Angryclown made a comedy choice. The joke is funnier with “Viet Cong” (also considered “Charley”) than, “NVA” or “North Vietnamese soldier.”

    Also, to be strictly accurate, there’s no reason that a light bulb couldn’t be screwed in by just one person of Polish ancestry.

  25. Mr. Shirt Avatar
    Mr. Shirt

    What, AC doesn’t know jack about history? Like when he claimed Jackie Robbinson was a democrat in 1947 when republican Strom Thurmond was running as a Republican, because Hubert Humphrey told him to get lost? Really?

    I’m beginning to lose faith in the mentally disturbed!

  26. Chad The Elder Avatar
    Chad The Elder

    AC-

    Like 98% of your attempts at humor, that wasn’t funny in any way. I hereby revoke your ability to use historical license for comedic purposes.

    Next time you make a comedy choice, why not try to actually make it funny? The crickets are really starting to get worn out.

  27. Mr. Shirt Avatar
    Mr. Shirt

    Chad, my good fellow, Angryclown made a comedy choice. The joke is funnier with “Viet Cong” (also considered “Charley”) than, “NVA” or “North Vietnamese soldier.”

    Impressive… That is all information you could have gleaned from one episode of The Simpson’s, but hey at least it didn’t come entirely from an orifice in your lower extremities, like usual.

  28. Mr. Shirt Avatar
    Mr. Shirt

    “Like 98% of your attempts at humor, that wasn’t funny in any way.”

    Projecting again?

    I mean we can’t make classic knee-slapping references to “fetus juggling”, but you are still inept.

    & I knew your ego wouldn’t allow you to ignore me for long! Keep the complements coming!

  29. Mr. Shirt Avatar
    Mr. Shirt

    FWIW Clown, I wasn’t trying to be funny. I was pointing out how absurd you are.

  30. Mr. Shirt Avatar
    Mr. Shirt

    Chad,

    I apologize, I didn’t see that you wrote that comment! I thought it was AC.

    I’ve been highly distracted after a fatal car crash that happend in front of my house theother night.

    Please strike my last two comments from the record

  31. Chad The Elder Avatar
    Chad The Elder

    No problem Shirt.

  32. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    See, Mitch, conservatives aren’t funny.

    THE TIMES HAS SPOKEN. BOW BEFORE THE ALMIGHTY TIMES.

    Chad, my good fellow, Angryclown made a comedy choice. The joke is funnier with “Viet Cong” (also considered “Charley”) than, “NVA” or “North Vietnamese soldier.”

    Where “funnier” = “more bizarrely nuanced”. Tomayto tomahto.

    Also, to be strictly accurate, there’s no reason that a light bulb couldn’t be screwed in by just one person of Polish ancestry.

    But Lebanese will still say “only one, and it’s not funny”.

    Er…was that Lebanese, or…

  33. angryclown Avatar
    angryclown

    Maybe it needs some work. As you know, Angryclown is a comedy perfectionist. How ’bout:

    The last time McCain got beat that badly, he signed a confession afterward.

  34. Troy Avatar
    Troy

    Keep working, angryclown.

  35. angryclown Avatar
    angryclown

    Actually just wondering what Mitch thinks, Trojan Man. We’ve established that you kooks aren’t funny, no offense.

  36. buzz Avatar
    buzz

    I think that rather than arguing back and forth if Palin knew that Africa was a continent, not a country, we can at least agree that the election is over and the smartest man in the world is now president over all 57 states. As FDR said in his inspiring television appearance in 1929 (both network AND cable) when he was president of the united states (not gov on ny, the history books are wrong) “can’t we all just get along?” So while it may be amusing to discuss Palin’s intelligence, just be thankful that we have the two smartest people ever in charge now.
    Anyway, go ahead clown. More funnies about how republicans are the stupid ones.

  37. Terry Avatar
    Terry

    Say, wasn’t Jimmy Carter attacked by a Giant Bunny?
    Anyone who can’t come up with a better excuse than that for soiling their brogues should get into another line of business. Maybe clowning.

  38. Mr. Shirt Avatar
    Mr. Shirt

    But it was no ordinary rabbit! It was the most foul, cursed, bad tempered rodent you ever laid eyes on! That rabbit had a vicious streak a mile wide & nasty, big, pointy teeth! It was a KILLER!

    Story:
    http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/950/what-was-the-deal-with-jimmy-carter-and-the-killer-rabbit

    And the photo:
    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/24/Rabbitattack.jpg

    🙂

  39. angryclown Avatar
    angryclown

    Didn’t Shrub pass out and hit his head cause he was eating a pretzel?

  40. Mr. Shirt Avatar
    Mr. Shirt

    Sorry “comedy perfectionist”. but any one can choke on a pretzel.

    Killer Bunnies are always funny.

    http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/950/what-was-the-deal-with-jimmy-carter-and-the-killer-rabbit

  41. Troy Avatar
    Troy

    angryclown said:

    “We’ve established that you kooks aren’t funny, no offense”

    None taken, but I don’t equate “angryclown said repeatedly” with “established” as you seem to. Using the royal “we”, angryclown?

  42. Mr. Shirt Avatar
    Mr. Shirt

    Pretty certain we’ve established that Angry Clown is not funny.

    He did have that one story about landing his clown plane on an aircraft carrier… but one funny doesn’t make you a comedian.

    Being an angry guy from NYC only makes you a stereotype.

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