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Obama’s Optical problems

Obama’s Optical problems

On the morning of February 17th,I was standing in line getting coffee at the little cafeteria at my day gig. Behind me were two guys that had obviously been in heated discussion for some time. I don't know either of them. I can't vouch for the conversation being word for word, but here it is from my memory:
So, let me understand this. Obama's going to Denver, today... several days after the bill he was so much in a hurry to sign that none of Congress could actually take the time to read it, was placed on his desk. Why did he wait all that time after the vote? So he could vacation? Well, no, so he could fly out to Denver, I guess. Why Denver? So that he could sign it in a plant that makes Solar panels. He wants to be seen as a 'green' president. But what does it take to make this happen? How's he getting there? Well, he's got to fly Air Force One out to Denver. Doesn't that mean he's flying at least four planes? Air Force One, plus the military escort, PLUS a second plane for a decoy, and likely more escorts for the decoy? I guess so, why? How much fuel does that take? Oh, I heard [...]
Obama’s Optical problems

Observations on a New Year

Here we are! 2009! What can we say? 2008 is gone and I think we're all grateful for that. Republicans had their hats handed to them, although Conservatives fared pretty well. And there's the difference. Moderate Republicanism is indistinguishable from the Democrats. If Republicans want to regain their stature in Washington and the state houses across America, they need to do it at the grass roots level and they need to return to Conservative values. Barack Obama is the President-elect not because of his microscopic resume, or because of the political cesspool he climbed out of, or the message of change and hope, because he represents neither. He won the national election because the Republican candidate was a moderate with a poorly-crafted message, and so since the two were indistinguishable, people chose the candidate that was younger, better-looking, and articulate. We can't do that again. After 18 months of the media (and Obama) telling us [...]
The Path to Victory: Grassroots Republicanism

The Path to Victory: Grassroots Republicanism

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 [...]
A Shot At Defining Conservatism

A Shot At Defining Conservatism

We are thinking heavily here about how to present a systematic approach to understanding what we call "Conservatism". Just this week, a fellow Iowa blogger Albert Bregar penned his thoughts at Red County Polk County and Iowa Defense Alliance. Albert provides an excellent start with a view to how many of us think about defining the way conservatives see the world today (okay, such a view would include "Ronald Reagan came back for more"). We will certainly start looking around blogdom and start collecting a list of such statements as "Smaller Government" and build them into a resource. But in stating the conservative view of today's world, we do limit ourselves to more of a statement of "how does conservative thinking apply to today's issues". What I hope we may eventually find is more of a basis for conservative thought. It's great to say [...]
Reset: New Beginnings

Reset: New Beginnings

About a two and a half years ago we started this blog with a vague idea of what we wanted to accomplish. That first post was pretty much just a "hello", with a short commentary on me. It took four months for me to write a second post, and a year after that for the third one. From that point on our vision for The Conservative Reader began to take form and about a year ago we began writing in earnest. Since January 1 2008, we have provided one or more pieces of commentary on politics, government and business (okay, an occasional cutover to sports) every single day. As the Presidential Election took shape we pretty much got wrapped up into the whole political cycle and almost exclusively commented on current events, especially the election. Now it's time to get back to what we came here for. Our mission [...]
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