McCain Dodges the Palin Question
Josh Painter over at RedState points out this exchange between George Stephanopoulos and Sen. John McCain on last Sunday’s This Week:
Today on ABC’s This Week, when asked by host George Stephanopoulos whether he would support Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin if she runs for president, Sen. John McCain punted:
“Oh no. Listen I have the greatest appreciation for Gov. Palin and her family and it was a great joy to know them,” McCain said. “She invigorated our campaign and she was just down in Georgia and she invigorated their campaign.”
“But I can’t say something like that,” McCain said, “We’ve got some great other young governors… Pawlenty, Huntsman.”
Pressed by Stephanopoulos that McCain had considered Palin to be the best person to succeed him if he had been elected and something had happened to him, the former Republican presidential candidate replied:
“Well sure, but now we’re in a whole election cycle.”
My first reaction on seeing this was ho-hum… I thought it was kind of a non-story. I never expected Sen. McCain to endorse Sarah Palin, or anyone else for that matter, this soon after the election.
After reading some of the comments posted on George Stephanopoulos’ blog and elsewhere I decided to throw my two cents in though.
Republicans didn’t lose this election because of Sarah Palin or John McCain. They fighting an uphill battle against their own record over last eight years.
They lost this election because they abandoned traditional conservative principles in favor of some sort of squishy, centrist/populist republicanism that lead to out of controlled spending bad policy ideas like campaign finance reform, no child left behind, and amnesty for illegal aliens.
Sen. McCain’s choice of Gov. Palin as a running mate may not have helped him with independent voters but there’s no doubt she energized grass roots conservatives and helped get them to the polls on election day… Without her I can’t help but think that a lot of conservatives would have stayed home on election day.
I’m not sure how or when the Republican party lost its way, but It’s obvious that that there’s a civil war of sorts going on in the republican party… Grass conservatives who want the party to return to traditional conservatives principles are battling inside the beltway cocktail party republicans who think the party should move further towards the populist “center”.
Defining traditional conservative principles isn’t a simple task but in short they start with a fundamental unwavering belief that, in the words of the Declaration of Independence, “… all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
If Republicans are going to have any chance in 2012, or in the 2010 midterms, they need to put principles before policy and start educating voters about the principles of fiscal responsibility, limited government, private property rights, and a strong national defense.
Poll Question: Who Do You Want As RNC Chair?
Loading ...My initial gut reaction is Newt Gingrich, though, the more I think about it the more I’m leaning towards Michael Steele or Fred Thompson. As much as I like Newt he may be to polarizing for the job.
The choice between Steele and Thompson is tough one, I don’t think we could go wrong with either one, ultimately I think Michael Steele embodies the idea of “change” more than Thompson does so I guess you can put me in the Steele camp.
Who’s your choice? Tell us why in comments.
The Blame Game
Over the last couple of days a lot has been said and written about why Republicans lost… Conservatives want to blame John McCain. Moderates and some McCain staffers are trying to pin the blame on Sarah Palin.
Enough!
All this finger pointing ignores one simple truth: Republicans had ZERO chance of winning this election. They have spent much of the past decade destroying their “brand”, they abandoned solid conservative principles in favor of quasi conservative/centrist/populist ideas that lead to out of control spending and bad policy ideas like campaign finance reform and amnesty for illegal aliens that alienated their conservative base.
That plus the Bush Administration’s mismanagement of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, coupled with their ham-fisted response to hurricane Katrina and failure to engage their opponents in a meaningful policy debate not only deepened the divide with the party’s conservative base it helped alienate independent voters.
The basic problem for Republicans is that they’ve forgotten Conservatism is not policy idea it is a fundamental unwavering belief that, in the words of the Declaration of Independence, “… all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
If Republicans expect to have any chance of winning in the 2010 mid-term elections, much less the 2012 Presidential election, they have to rediscover those fundamental principles and return to being the party that embodies them through policies that promote fiscal responsibility and a smaller less intrusive government.
These truths should be self-evident; unfortunately they aren’t, they have to be articulated constantly, lest people forget what they are.
Election Postmortem
Let the finger pointing begin… Beltway Republicans will undoubtedly blame John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate as the reason for his loss. Palin may not have been the most qualified candidate available and her disastrous interview with Katie Couric certainly didn’t help her or John McCain.
It’s easy to lay the blame at Palin’s feet but doing so misses the larger picture; Republicans had no chance of winning this election for a number of reasons:
- Fatigue - Simply put Pres. Bush and Republicans in the House and Senate abandoned Conservative principles and alienated Republican an independent voters with out of control spending, bad policy ideas like amnesty for illegal immigrants, and campaign finance reform and by grossly overreaching on some social issues. That coupled with the Bush Administration’s failure to engage the opposition in a meaningful policy debate left grass roots conservatives demoralized… We fought for them but for the most part they didn’t fight for us.
- Lack of vision - For all intents and purposes the Republican Party ran an agendaless campaign. Yes, they had ideas but they never communicated them in an effective manner and allowed Democrats to color the ideas they did have as just more of the same.
- The Economy - For 8 years democrats and media have called the Bush economy the worst in 50 years, something that’s simply not true… But because of the Bush Administrations failure to engage it’s resonated with voters. September’s economic collapse helped to validate that belief.
That said John McCain and Sarah Plain did about as well as a Republicans could do in this environment.
Where do go from here?
To be honest I’m not sure. Unless things change dramatically Republican prospects don’t look good for the 2010 mid-terms or in 2012.
We need new leadership at the RNC and in the House and Senate… Personally I’d love to see someone like Newt Gingrich as the next RNC chairman. Yes, Newt’s a lightening rod, but he’s also the one of the most effective advocates for conservatism we have.
Ed Morrissey has additional thoughts at Hot Air, Michelle Malkin says “Enough with the “re-branding” crap” and Congressman Thaddeus McCotter has must read column in the American Spectator:
Now, Seize Freedom!
Welcome to “Republican Rock Bottom.”
Possessed of no vision, no principle, no purpose, and no appeal, we deserved our fate.
Now, seize freedom!
Finally, we are divorced from self-deceits. Dead is the self-indulgent imbecility of “re-branding” — as if the Republican Party was a corporate product to be repackaged, not a transformational political movement to be led. Despite what the media will tell you, and what so-called “conservative leaders” will discuss ad nauseam during “secret” meetings, this situation is not a crisis. It is an opportunity. Today, we are as the Great Emancipator proclaimed during another time of national trial: unbound by the tired dogmas of the past; and free to think and act anew.First, we must not mindlessly mimic the momentarily triumphant Left. Sleek, detached, media savvy non-entities posing as existentially anguished leaders are neither in our nature nor our future. We are not teeny-bopper, pop-star politicians or the ideological dinosaurs of wealth redistribution.
At heart, we Republicans are flesh and blood and backbone, the proud servants of people. If we re-orient our vision, renew our purpose, and reaffirm our principles, the times will demand us — not as we were, but as we must be! Read the rest…
Senate Passes Crap Sandwich 2.0 74-25
From the Wall Street Journal:
Senate Passes Bailout Package
House Passage Remains Less CertainWASHINGTON — The Senate’s revamped bailout package drew support from 74 lawmakers in a roll call vote Wednesday evening, and the measure will now return to the balky House of Representatives for another vote following its unexpected rejection on Monday.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid speaks to the media on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.
The Senate approved a new bill loaded with tax breaks for business and an increase in deposit-insurance limits. It will be taken up in the House Friday.
The Senate bill is the latest twist in a dramatic week for a plan the president has said is vital to ensure the proper functioning of financial markets and, by extension, the broader economy. On Monday, the House delivered a stunning defeat to an earlier version of the bill amid a populist backlash from voters, tanking stock markets.
Stunned by the market reaction, lawmakers regrouped and added new items to the bill to win the extra needed support. One big change is the introduction of a 10-year, $150.5 billion package of tax proposals, including measures to ease the bite of the so-called alternative minimum tax and research-and-development tax credits coveted by high-tech companies and drug makers.
Count me among those who agree with Newt Gingrich… The Bush Administration’s handling of this has been irresponsible.
From CNSNews.com:
Bush’s Handling of Financial Crisis ‘Irresponsible,’ Gingrich Says
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
By Tiffany Gabbay(CNSNews.com) - Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich blasted President George Bush and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Tuesday over the proposed financial bailout, saying the president “is being absolutely irresponsible” in his handling of the problem.
“There are steps that the administration could take today that would dramatically improve where we are immediately, without legislation” Gingrich said.
“If the president believes anything he is saying in his speeches about how big this crisis is, he should pick up the phone this morning and call SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) Chairman Chris Cox and tell him to suspend the ‘mark-to-market’ accounting rules, which are the fundamental problem today and can be suspended.”
The mark-to-market system of accounting requires all assets, mortgages, and holdings to be valued at their current market value, regardless of whether that reflects their true worth.
It is an accounting practice that “literally hundreds of the most revered economists” blame for 70 percent of the current problem in the financial markets, Gingrich said.
“If you calculate 70 percent of $700 billion, that is $490 billion” he said.
Lets hope Republicans in the House can kill this turkey once and for all… Let them know what think: 202-224-3121.
Crash & Burn: $700 Billion “Crap Sandwich” Goes Down In Flames!
Whoa… I was expecting a close vote on bailout bill but this is a complete shock. The bailout bill has crashed and burned in the House.
The vote was 228 nay to 205 yea with 1 not voting. Democrats supported the bill 140-95, while Republicans opposed it 65-133.
Is this the reason?
Nancy Pelosi’s floor speech certainly didn’t help… I’d like to think the bills failure had more to with a majority of Congressmen being opposed to socializing business losses rather a reaction to the highly partisan nature of her remarks.
The truth is despite all the spin saying this bill needed Republican support to pass Democrats have a sufficient majority in Congress to pass it without Republican support… If just 10 Democrats had changed their votes it would have passed!
If anything this vote is a complete repudiation of Pelosi’s leadership… She simply couldn’t hold her caucus together, let me say this again Democrats have the votes to pass this pig without Republican support and Pelosi couldn’t get it done - 95 members of her caucus voted against it!
Video: Burning Down The House: What Caused Our Economic Crisis?
This video has been floating around the web for a couple of days… It provides a detailed look at how the Community Reinvestment Act was used to push banks into sub-prime mortgages and how that distorted the housing market… And helped create the bubble that burst.
A couple of caveats though… First it lays the blame solely at the feet of Democrats and while they do have a lot of explaining to do, Republicans are not blameless. They controlled both houses of Congress in 2003 when the Bush Administration proposed new rules to rein in Fannie and Freddy and yet they failed to act. Likewise in 2006 when they failed to fight for the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act that Chuck Hagel, John McCain, John Sununu, and Elizabeth Dole sponsored.
Second it ignores the role of the Federal Reserve Board and the Bush Administration in keeping interest rates artificially low and weakening the dollar. Which lead to a rise in commodity prices and that I think ultimately helped hasten our current economic problems.
There’s plenty of blame to go around, this isn’t so much a Democrat or Republican problem as it is Washington political culture problem. Yes, Democrats started the ball rolling but we all should have know better…
How Did We Get Here?
Ed Morrissey @ Hot Air asks “Whose policies led to the credit crisis?”
The answer depends on who you ask… Democrats of course blame Republicans and Republicans of course blame Democrats. Personally, I think it’s safe to point fingers at both parties and the Federal Reserve Board.
The roots of the current credit crisis can, as John Lott noted in March, be traced to a 1992 Boston Federal Reserve study that reportedly found evidence of racial discrimination in mortgage lending. As Lott notes:
The Fed later used the study to produce a manual for mortgage lenders that: “discrimination may be observed when a lender’s underwriting policies contain arbitrary or outdated criteria that effectively disqualify many urban or lower-income minority applicants.”
So what is on the list of Fed’s “outdated criteria”? Such “discriminatory” factors as the borrower’s credit history, income verification, and the size of the mortgage payment relative to income.
But it turns out that the original study was mistaken.
Economists discovered that there were errors in the data the study used. Some minorities were listed as having wealth up to hundreds of times greater than they actually had, making it look like wealthy minorities were being turned down for loans. When the data errors were corrected minorities with the same financial background as whites had been at no disadvantage in getting mortgages.
It was Clinton era changes to the Community Redevelopment Act that helped create the market for risky subprime loans… The very things that Democrats now point to as evidence of predatory lending practices.
Yes, it was Democrats who wanted to preserve Clinton era policies and resisted the Bush Administrations attempts to rein in the credit markets. But it was Republicans who don’t appear to have put much effort into exposing corruption at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and/or fighting for reforms.
Bottom line this isn’t the time for finger pointing but since we’re going to do it any anyway we might as well blame the entrenched Washington political culture. Our current credit crisis isn’t Democrat or Republican problem… It’s a culture problem; Washington shuns accountability, tolerates corruption and places political correctness ahead of good governance.
It’s About Time…
Finally!
We’re finally starting to see some signs of life from the Bush administration and republicans in congress. Unfortunately, what we’re seeing is another half measure… I’m all for increasing domestic oil production and building new refineries, but those measures won’t have a significant short term impact on the price we pay at the pump.
It’s the dollar stupid!
Since 2001 the value of the dollar versus foreign currencies has declined to the point where we ought to start calling it the American Pesso, seriously, it’s the weak dollar more than anything else that is driving up the price of oil and other commodities.
If the president and congress were really interested in bringing down the prices we at the pump, or in the supermarket for that matter, in the short term they’d be talking about strengthening the dollar not arguing about whether we should drill domestically or not.
Just my two cents.
Health Care and the State of the Union
Here are two great columns from The Wall Street Journal. If you haven’t already read them you should.
The first, The Republican Health-Care Surrender by Dick Armey details one of the biggest problems Republicans are facing… Their complete surrender on health care. I don’t want government run health care I have private health care insurance an I’m happy with it. It’s not cheap, it costs me roughly $600.00 a quarter and it doesn’t cover everything and that’s fine with me… I don’t expect it to.
I chose the coverage I have based on my needs and what I could afford and it covers everything it should. I’m not bothered by paying my doctor $90.00 out of my pocket for an office visit or paying a $5000.00 deductible in a calendar year, what I do want from my health insurance is protection from catastrophic expenses and that’s what it provides.
Part of the problem with the health care debate is that to many people want their health insurance to pay for every little thing… Whether it’s $20.00 co-pay for an office visit or $6.00 co-pay for prescription drugs they have an unrealistic expectation of what their health insurance should cover.
Before anyone starts telling me I’m living in a fantasy land… I spent the past year dealing with a health problem and had surgery to correct that problem on January 17th so I’m intimately familiar with the system. I can’t say anything bad about my doctors, the nurses or physicians assistants who treated me or my insurance company who never once questioned the decisions my doctors or I made.
The Second is today’s Potomac Watch column, The State of the Union? Furious. by Kimberley A. Strassel.
Ms Strassel writes:
The state of the union is angry. Citizens are furious about gas prices and health-care costs, broken schools and property taxes. These are the leaky hydrants, the constant reminders that government hasn’t done much for them lately. Their fury has bubbled as they’ve watched Washington obsess over itself – dealing out earmarks, paying off constituencies, launching probes into political enemies. Accomplishing zip.
This anger is the best way to describe today’s political landscape. Ever since Republicans were routed in 2006, and more recently with their loss of three special elections, the party has been in a debate about what changed in the country and what to do in response. In the primaries, as Mike Huckabee pitched to evangelicals, Rudy Giuliani pitched to fiscal conservatives, and Mitt Romney pitched to anything that moved, some went so far as to declare the “death” of the Reagan coalition.
She’s absolutely correct, Republicans (and Democrats for that matter) in Washington are painfully out touch with what matters on main street. They’re more interested in pork barrel projects, pandering to special interests or playing political games than addressing real issues and solving problems. The soaring price of gas is just one example… We’re not stupid out here, we know when we’re being lied to or when we’re being pandered to. Rather then address the issues that have led to high prices, principally the weak dollar, our leaders put forth ideas like a windfall profits tax on oil companies or temporary moratorium on the federal gas tax. If they really wanted to address the issue they’d be talking about strengthening the dollar, building new refineries and increasing domestic oil production so we weren’t as dependent on foreign imports.
The Reagan Coalition isn’t dead but it’s no longer being represented… and there in lies the problem for Republicans, they’ve lost the trust of the people that helped bring them to power. If they want to have any chance in November they have to get it back and champion an agenda that will inspire them.