The Myth of ’08, Demolished

by Charles Krauthammer at Townhall.com

WASHINGTON — Sure, Election Day 2009 will scare moderate Democrats and make passage of Obamacare more difficult. Sure, it makes it easier for resurgent Republicans to raise money and recruit candidates for 2010. But the most important effect of Tuesday’s elections is historical. It demolishes the great realignment myth of 2008.

In the aftermath of last year’s Obama sweep, we heard endlessly about its fundamental, revolutionary, transformational nature. How it was ushering in an FDR-like realignment for the 21st century in which new demographics — most prominently, rising minorities and the young — would bury the GOP far into the future. One book proclaimed “The Death of Conservatism,” while the more modest merely predicted the terminal decline of the Republican Party into a regional party of the Deep South or a rump party of marginalized angry white men.

This was all ridiculous from the beginning. 2008 was a historical anomaly. A uniquely charismatic candidate was running at a time of deep war weariness, with an intensely unpopular Republican president, against a politically incompetent opponent, amid the greatest financial collapse since the Great Depression. And still he won by only seven points.

Exactly a year later comes the empirical validation of that skepticism. Virginia — presumed harbinger of the new realignment, having gone Democratic in ’08 for the first time in 44 years — went red again. With a vengeance. Barack Obama had carried it by six points. The Republican gubernatorial candidate won by 17 — a 23-point swing. New Jersey went from plus 15 Democratic in 2008 to minus 4 in 2009. A 19-point swing.

What happened? The vaunted Obama realignment vanished.

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Election 2009: Change I Can Believe In!

by Ann Coulter at Townhall.com

MSNBC, Aug. 31, 2009, Keith Olbermann on Robert F. McDonnell, Republican candidate for governor of Virginia:

“In (McDonnell’s master’s thesis), he described women having jobs as detrimental to the family, called legalized use of contraception illogical, pushed to make divorce more difficult, and insisted government should favor married couples over, quote, ‘cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators.’ Wow. When did he write this? 1875? No, 1989. Wow, 1989.

“Goodbye, Mr. McDonnell.”

MSNBC, Sept. 22, 2009, Rachel Maddow also on McDonnell:

“And here’s where the conservative movement and the Republican establishment smash into each other like bumper cars without bumpers. Here’s where Republican electoral chances stop being separate from the wild-eyed excesses of the conservative movement.

“Part of watching Republicans try to return to power is watching … the conservative movement eat the Republican Party, eat their electoral chances over and over and over again.”

On election night, conservatives-eating-Republicans resulted in an 18-point landslide for McDonnell, who beat his Democratic opponent 59 percent to 41 percent — winning two-thirds of all independent voters and ending the Democrats’ eight-year reign in the Virginia governor’s office.

Republicans swept all statewide offices for the first time in 12 years, winning the races for lieutenant governor and attorney general, as well as assembly seats, garbage inspector, dog catcher and anything else Virginians could vote for.

To paraphrase a pompous blowhard: Goodbye, Mr. Democrat.

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Latest Poll Shows Conservative Ahead in NY-23

Since November, many have called for the Republican Party to turn back to its conservative principles.  Though a few have hypothesized the 2008 trouncing of the GOP was due to the party standing too far to the right, conservative Americans refute those who believe a Republican resurgence can only happen if the GOP tries harder to emulate Democrats.

And conservatives now make up a plurality of American citizens!

Reports here and elsewhere of Republican leaders’ failure to understand the key to a Republican renewal continue to fall on the deaf ears of party elites who endorsed the definition of a RINO (Republican in Name Only) in New York’s 23rd Congressional District, Dede Scozzafava.

But some high profile conservatives are listening, and responding.  Michele Bachmann, Tim Pawlenty, Jim Demint, and Sarah Palin are just a few who have rebuked the Republican Party nobility who can’t seem to understand Americans don’t want any Republican elected, they want conservative Republicans elected.  Though the RINO aristocrats of the GOP nominated the Democratic dream candidate Scozzafava and stabbed the true conservative candidate Doug Hoffman in the back, these and other conservative heavyweights have now cast their lots with Hoffman on the 3rd party Conservative ticket.

Now the latest poll is showing what conservatives knew, and the GOP aristocracy ignored, all along.  Hoffman now leads both Scozzafava and her Democratic challenger, Bill Owens.  In fact, over the course of the last month Owen’s support has remained mostly steady, while liberal Scozzafava and conservative Hoffman have traded poll numbers.  This time last month, a Siena poll had Scozzafava leading with 35, Owens with 28, and Hoffman at 16.  Now a Minuteman/Neighborhood poll has Hoffman leading with 34, Owens at 28, and liberal Scozzafava falling fast at 14.

The GOP brass better get it figured out in a hurry.  The people are coming out to elect conservatives, in cooperation with, or in spite of the Republican Party!

What’s Sarah Palin planning?

from TCOT Report

Here we go again: GOP committing suicide

Just when Conservatives were gaining ground (see here, here, and here), two Republicans who were among the most respected in our community have been caught with their pants down…literally.  What in the Hell is wrong with these idiots?

Last week, Sen. Ensign (R-NV) admitted having an affair with a member of his campaign staff.  This is the same Senator who called for the resignation of Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) when he was caught soliciting gay sex in the restroom of an airport and President Clinton after his infidelity in the White House came to light.  Ensign referred to Craig as a “disgrace” and said Clinton “has no credibility left.”  Now his escapades have exposed him as a hypocrite and the Conservative philosophy will pay the price.

And if the Ensign affair didn’t do enough damage, today another rising star in the Republican party crashed to the ground after disappearing for four days and reappearing to reveal his own philandering.  South Carolina Gov. Mark Stanford, who made national headlines when he attempted to refuse federal dollars from the Obama “stimulus” package bound for his state, publicly admitted that he too has been unfaithful to his wife.  And again, the Conservative cause suffers a staggering blow.

Both Ensign and Sanford have resigned their party leadership positions, but neither has offered to resign from their elected office.  More ammunition for the left-wing press and blogosphere to dismantle what had been growing support for Conservative ideology and to bolster support of Democrats’ Socialist agenda.  And that’s the worst part of these revelations.

These two have not only inflicted terrible pain on their families, but also on present and future generations of Americans.  Their infidelity undermines what was the American people’s growing trust in the GOP and a Conservative approach to governing our country.  Their selfish actions will not only injure their families, but mine and yours as well.  Our children will suffer because many voters who recently switched to supporting our philosophy and those who would have soon switched will likely return to the party that panders to and embraces morally bankrupt philanderers.  And every day they remain in office, every statement they release, and every appearance they make will remind voters of their betrayal.  That betrayal won’t simply be attributed to these two hypocrites, but will also be assigned to the GOP.

These two lying, cheating bastards have just counterracted months of effort many of us have expended in an effort to rebuild the Republican party since the November election.  As bad as I hate the thought of President Obama having filibuster-proof control of the Senate, I hate the thought of a low-life hypocritical scumbag like Ensign remaining in place representing the GOP even more.  Virginia and North Carolina turned blue last November, and Sanford’s refusal to resign in South Carolina may be enough to turn that state blue as well.

So I just want to give a big, facetious Thank You to these two worthless bastards.  And to any other Republican politicians who profess to stand for family values while screwing around on their spouse…take your lying, cheating, worthless asses over to the party that encourages broken promises, broken marriages, and broken lives now! That’s where you belong.

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You can read Sanford’s emails between the lying, cheating philanderer and his mistress here.

You did it: KS teacher rehired!

Great job and many thanks to all who stood up for Lawrence High School history teacher Tim Latham, whose contract wasn’t renewed due to his conservative beliefs.  The pressure you put on resulted in Mr. Latham being rehired!

Mr. Latham’s response:  “I couldn’t be more pleased with this outcome. While I am happy to have this behind me, and look forward to returning to LHS next fall, I will always be grateful to my students for actually putting what I teach into practice.”

I, too, am grateful to Mr. Latham’s students, several of whom created the Facebook group, Save Mr.Latham, Lawrence High History Teacher, which counts almost 2,000 members after only a few days.  These students refused to stand by and let their successors at Lawrence High be deprived of, as one student put it, “…a really good teacher.”

Conservatives take the lead! Can GOP capitalize?

A Gallup poll released yesterday gives more good news to those of us who want to pull back hard on the reins to stop President Obama from racing our country into the throes of Socialism at a gallop.  The results, based on a compilation of 10 different surveys conducted from January to May of this year, show more Americans identify themselves as Conservatives than either moderates or liberals, with nearly twice as many who side with the Right than those on the left side of the political fence.  Conservatives comprise 40% of Americans in 2009, moderates 35%, and liberals a paltry 21%.

In 2008, the Conservative-moderate-liberal mix was 37-37-22%.  So this represents an 8% gain in the numbers of self-identified Conservatives in the country, a 5.4% drop in Americans who call themselves moderates, and a 4.5% decline of the left-wing herd which wears the liberal brand.  Remember, these surveys include data from the early days of the Obama administration; before the $787 billion dollar “stimulus” package was passed, before his $3.4 billion budget, before the administration terrified New York City residents with the Scare Force 1 photo-op, before he showed anti-American Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez some brotherly love, before he bought a bankrupt General Motors with our money, etc.  In those early days, you can assume more Americans clamored to identify themselves with the brand of Obama, so this poll is likely skewed in the President’s favor. 

The question is, can the GOP capitalize on this shift in political identity?  Many life-long conservatives have speculated before that the ’06 and ’08 election results were not due to the American people shifting to the left, but rather the Republican party abandoning its Conservative principles.  Specifically, the abandonment of fiscal and economic conservatism.  Though the MSM loves to paint the GOP as dangling over the Right side of the political spectrum, that’s not the case at all.  I and many like me were absolutely disgusted with Bush’s inability to control spending–with a majority in both houses of Congress.  Truth be told, many of us don’t feel like we’ve had a real Conservative in the White House since Reagan.

The GOP, in its quest for power and control, sacrificed its conservative principles in the hopes of gaining a few left-leaning voters.  I often wonder if this is a strategy to gain favor with the MSM to undo the left’s obvious advantage in that arena, possibly with the mindset that once the press was neutralized the Conservative message would have a better platform to sway the American people.  But that may be giving the party too much credit.  More than likely, the shift to the left was nothing more than an effort to gain that most corruptible of corruptibles, power.  But how long does it take to convince the fat-cats at the GOP?  How many elections must we lose before they admit their tactics have failed to displace our adversaries?

Message to GOP:  We’re never going to convince the left-wing MSM that we’re right and the Obamanots are wrong!  Conservative America wants Conservative candidates.

Right now, Americans trust Republicans more than Democrats.  That, coupled with Americans shifting toward Conservative ideology should tell the GOP 2010 had better be the year we returned to running real Conservatives.  It’s time to return to principle if we want to regain power.

Statement from Tim Latham

From Save Mr.Latham, Lawrence High History Teacher

STATEMENT FROM MR. LATHAM:

There has been a rumor going around that the main reason I was non-renewed is because I supposedly compared Obama to Hitler. I have been receiving some pretty nasty e-mails about it so I feel I must speak.

This is completely and totally false. I NEVER compared Obama to Hitler.

This is what happened and where the rumor comes from:

In a good GOVERNMENT class you learn about ALL forms of government. On one particular day we were discussing the various forms of government; i.e. Democracy, Socialism, Communism, Fascism, etc. The difference between dictators, Prime Ministers, and Presidents, etc. We talked about many differences between the Democratic and Republican platforms. You have to understand I had VERY GOOD students who asked great questions leading to great discussions.

As we were talking about fascism (a gov’t that allows private property ownership but maintains strict control over banking and major industry) a student asked me what governments were fascist. The term was familiar but he couldn’t remember why. I pointed out that Benito Mussolin (Italy) and Adolf Hitler (Germany) of WWII were the most famous fascist dictators. Another student made a comment asking how someone like Hitler gets in power. I explained that he had actually been DEMOCRACTICALLY ELECTED… something many people don’t realize. He then became a dictator and took over control of everything. Another student asked how someone like Hitler could get elected? I stated that people didn’t realize he was going to become the person he did. Germany was suffering worse than any country in the world from the Great Depression (economic crisis), Germany was still angry over the Treaty of Versailles (WWI) and Hitler was a very good public speaker and told the people exactly what they wanted to hear. He made a lot of promises and appealed to the masses.

About 15 minutes later into the class we were discussing McCain and Obama again and what people liked about them, what each ones chances were of getting elected, etc. And yes, I did mention, that the best thing going for Obama was that he was an eloquent speaker, people were unhappy with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the economy was looking bad. ALL points being covered in the news every day, by every political pundit in the world.

There is a girl in that particular class who LOVED to argue and who was a major Obama supporter. Made for good debates sometimes, sometimes frustration. This is one of those frustration times. THE STUDENT HERSELF is the one who, after I made the above statement about Obama, that said “so you’re comparing Obama to Hitler?” As soon as she said it, before I could even speak, several other students (who were used to argueing with her) stated that is not what I said. I myself repeatedly said no I was not comparing the two. I did admit that the “situation” for them to get elected is similiar but I in no way thought that Obama was in any way like Hitler. I repeated that statement more than once since she wanted to argue it, no I WAS NOT comparing Obama to Hitler. I pointed out that those situations are common in many elections; i.e. using the economy, an unpopular war (see Vietnam), etc. in order to gain support for an election. Not good enough, she went straight to the Asst. Prinicipal and said I was picking on Obama and comparing him to Hitler. I was called in, I explained everything that happened exactly like I have just stated, and I thought, that was that. Evidently not.

That is the true story. You decide for yourself.

Tim Latham

Teacher, father of 3, fired for conservative views

UPDATE: Tim Latham and students will be on Fox & Friends at 7:45 AM tomorrow, Monday, June 15, 2009

UPDATE 2:  Statement from Tim Latham

UPDATE 3:  Latham rehired.

Though this was his first year at Lawrence High School, he’s been teaching History for the past 19 years. A self-professed liberal student who graduated this spring says, “It’s really disappointing because he’s a really good teacher. It doesn’t seem fair. Why would they let a good teacher go?” But let him go they did, after repeatedly chastising him for being critical of President Obama and even for having a McCain/Palin bumper sticker on his car!

Tim Latham states he was also dressed down by his assistant principal Jan Gentry for content on his school website, which she deemed “too patriotic.”   But liberals needn’t worry now because his links to different branches of the US military and the military academies have been removed from the site.  The Left no longer needs to worry that his pages may encourage high school students to serve their country.

While some of his pages have been left in tact, clicking on the “What I Think” tab now yields an empty page.  Another tab on his home page labeled “Terrorism” also contains nothing.  Apparently, school officials have scrubbed his pages of anything that might let young minds experience something other than the liberal education establishment view of our world.  God only knows that they could just get the idea that Conservatism isn’t the evil so many educators wish to brainwash the children to believe.

You can help by joining the “Save Mr. Latham, Lawrence High History Teacher” group on Facebook now.  Already, 655 have joined to show their support!  There’s also a discussion thread on the group site to leave your comments.  You can also sign a petition to help Mr. Latham get his job back.

Read more on this story here.

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How about a divorce?

From Neal Boortz

Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters, We’ve stuck together since the late 1950s, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce. I know that we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly this relationship has run its course. Our two ideological sides of America cannot and just will not ever agree on what’s right. So let’s just end it right now while we can do it on friendly terms. We can smile, shake hands, chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and each go our own way. So here’s a model separation agreement. Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by land mass, each taking a portion. That’s going to be the difficult part, but I’m sure our two sides can come to a friendly agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy. Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate taste. We don’t like redistributive taxes so you can have those. You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU. And since you hate guns and you hate war, we’ll take the firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military. You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and Rosie O’Donnell. But you are going to be responsible for finding a biodiesel vehicle big enough to haul them around. We’ll keep the capitalism, the greedy corporations, the pharmaceutical companies; we will keep Wal-Mart and Wall Street. You can have the homeless, the homeboys, the hippies and illegal aliens. We will keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, the greedy CEOS and all of the rednecks. We’ll keep the Bibles and we’ll let you have NBC and Hollywood. You can be nice to Iran and Palestine and we’ll retain the right to invade and hammer anybody that threatens us. You can have the peaceniks and the war protesters. When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we will provide them with security. You won’t have to worry about it. We will keep our Judeo-Christian values. You are welcome to Islam, Scientology, Humanism and Shirley Maclaine. You can also have the UN, but we will no longer pay the bill. We will keep the SUVs, the pickup trucks and the oversize luxury cars. You can have the compacts, the subcompacts and every Subaru station wagon you can find. You can give everybody healthcare, if you can find any practicing doctors. We will continue to believe that healthcare is a privilege and not a right. We will keep “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and the national anthem, and I am sure you will be happy to substitute in their place “Imagine.” I’d like to teach the world to sing “Kumbaya” or “We are the world.” We will practice trickle-down economics and you can give trickle-up poverty your best shot. And since it so offends you, we will keep our history, our name and our flag. Would you agree to this? If so, please pass it along other like-minded liberal and conservative patriots. And if you do not agree, just hit delete. In the friendly spirit of parting, I’ll bet you ANWAR which one of us will need whose help in about 15 years. Sincerely, John J Wall Law student and an American P.S. You can also have Barbara Streisand and Jane Fonda

See original post and more at Neal’s website.