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[...]

The Wall Street Journal states the bloody obvious:

According to recent Gallup polls, the president’s average approval rating is below 30% — down from his 90% approval in the wake of 9/11. Mr. Bush has endured relentless attacks from the left while facing abandonment from the right.

This is the price Mr. Bush is paying for trying to work with both Democrats and Republicans. During his 2004 victory speech, the president reached out to voters who supported his opponent, John Kerry, and said, “Today, I want to speak to every person who voted for my opponent. To make this nation stronger and better, I will need your support, and I will work to earn it. I will do all I can do to deserve your trust.”

Those bipartisan efforts have been met with crushing resistance from both political parties.

Rejected from the Democrats because that’s what the Democrats do. Reach out to them, they’ll break your arm… as Bush Sr found out. Remember[...]

Ah, it’s back to one of my favorite pastimes…blogging for the Conservative Reader.  Since my last installment, several interesting things have happened:
Politics
For whatever reason, Senator Clinton refuses to concede the nomination.  Either she and Bill cannot conceive of the fact that reasonable people would not choose them to be their standard-bearer, or somehow, some way, [...]

Limbaugh likes to say on his radio program, that he IS balance for the liberal press. And in many ways, he’s quite right. So an interesting angle on this shows up today in an article by John Harris and Jim Vandiehei at The Politico:
My, oh my, but weren’t those fellows from ABC News rude [...]

I’ve been subscribing to Fortune magazine for about 15 years now, and in the last couple of years I’ve given serious thought to letting my subscription go for something more substantive and/or right-leaning, as I’ve watched the editorial staff at Fortune take their publication further and further left.  And then, just when I begin to [...]

I’ve said it a number of times here in the past: the real power is in the US Congress.  Presidents can negotiate with foreign leaders, take military action (to an extent), and manage the administration as approved (more or less) by Congress.  And then a little here and there with Presidential Executive Orders.  And of [...]