I attended the event this evening and while George did not make any comments that sounded like “Hey, I want to be your next President”, this was definitely seemed like a pre-exploratory event. He had some great comments about the current state of affairs, and took questions which I also think he answered well. Some in New York (see comments on this post) have speculated about him running for other posts in that state, others have suggested he could be a possible contender for President in 2012. Even if he does not run for anything, he certainly provides a strong sense of some of the things the GOP needs to do to take back the People’s Government.

There were about 90 people at the event tonight, including a number of Republican/Conservative activists that I’ve gotten to know, former Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, Joseph Heuertz (and other leaders) of the Drake College Republicans, John Bloom, Polk County Republican Chair (along with probably a dozen members of the Polk County Republican Central Committee, one of the sponsors of the event), Steve Rathje, David Van Ahn, Kim Schmett, Ed Failor Jr. (Iowans for Tax Relief), Craig Robinson (The Iowa Republican) and [...]

Let’s start, with a premise:

Every Republican president candidate since 1964 has had their level of success or failure, respectively, tied directly to the degree of voter perception that they have or have not turned their back on conservatism.

Consider the history of the thing… and it all flows one way:

• Nixon billed himself a conservative, and successfully, even though in most respects he was a California Moderate, and came down more or less where John McCain was in the most recent election; to the left of George W Bush. Yet, Nixon had an electoral landslide in both elections. (Admittedly, the Democrats he ran against were a laughable lot, which didn’t hurt him.)
• Bush 41 figured if he bent over forward enough, the left would [...]

You’re going to hear quite a bit from the left over ‘the death of conservatism’ over the next few weeks. But they’ve got it wrong. I say, what we’ve got is the death of compromised conservatism as espoused by George W Bush, his father, GHW Bush, and by more recently, John McCain.

This morning, we see a post from Helen Valois at Renew America, who calls this ‘conservative conservatism’. I can quibble with the name she chooses, but not her meaning…

What is conservative conservatism? It is a commitment to playing a good defense (or rather — except for the one, brief, shining moment of Governor Palin’s acceptance speech — a pretty flawed defense) when your opponents have gone decisively on the offensive. It is that which John McCain quintessentially represents — the recalcitrant[...]

I am not surprised at the guilty verdict handed down against US Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) on seven counts of making false statements. And nor should anyone else. I stated earlier in the year that Alaskan Republicans needed to find another candidate, but they failed. It amazes me that people like Ted can imagine that they are not only above the law, but that in the midst of failure they should continue on with their struggle for power when they should be focusing on dealing with the issue at hand… planning a appeal. From The Hill:

The senator vowed to “fight this unjust verdict with every ounce of energy I have” and said he would return home to defend his seat.

“I am innocent. This verdict is[...]

I just got home from the GOP Fest fundraiser here in Polk County.  I was a bit disappointed.
Don’t get me wrong.  I thought the speakers were great, the food was good.  The governor of Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty, gave an encouraging stump speech for McCain and Palin.
It’s just that the event was so lightly attended.
I walked [...]

Sarah Palin had her first big interview (6 parts) this week since being selected as John McCain’s running mate.  Paul F. Villareal made the video’s available at YouTube.
Of course, ABC played it for as much air time as they could… including repeating sections of the interview on 20/20 last night.
Let’s see, Thursday “World News”, Thursday [...]

Tonight’s speech by Sarah Palin was a smashing hit!
It was truly inspiring and gave me, and clearly the convention delegates, an even stronger sense of confidence that we will win in November.
Palin hit hard against the liberal media and Democrats who have been attacking her since Friday.
She provided an excellent case for the McCain/Palin ticket.
And [...]

The Left is going absolutely bonkers over the selection of Sarah Palin to run for Vice-President on the GOP ticket.
There’s also a lot of negative comments coming from the Right, although not quite as emotionally charged as those from the Left.
Christopher Patton of The Podium, aka DI Blog (that is, Daily Iowan, I believe) had [...]

You know that I’ve more or less kept myself out of the brush on the VP nominations of both parties. As the level of media and blog speculation turned itself up to a glass-breaking pitch, it made no sense to me to eviscerate my commentary with idle and tiresome speculation. Too many possibilities, [...]

Democrats for decades have been struggling with the inner turmoil of diverse political positions which have kept their party from setting a course that all Democrats can get behind.  And this partly why that party has bled so many conservative Democrats to vote for Republican Presidents.
Obama has succeeded in achieving the role of presumptive Democratic [...]