There are some (paralyzingly inept) republican leaders I suppose - if you feel that it’s legitimate to apply the word “leader” - but they aren’t conservative.

On the right there is a lot of discussion, disagreement. and independent thinking. The conservatives do not, for example, like McCain. He’s not only not one of them, he’s barely republican. A whole lot of them are going to stay home in November, I suspect,because right voters don’t just go along in lockstep.

It seems to me that the factions of the right have standards, which often enough works to their detriment. The reason the republicans took a shellacking in 2006 wasn’t because all the republican voters from 2004 died, or moved to Monte Carlo; it’s because they were so annoyed at their own party that they said “go to hell” and stayed home.

The left would never do that. I don’t mean to be excessively rude here, but I have to say that they seem to have no standards whatsoever - and therefore no expectations from their candidates. They vote much more in lockstep than the right does.

You’ll be able to see this clearly in the fall: right now Obama is - if you believe the media - full-time engaged in pissing off his left-wing supporters by “moving to the center.” It will NOT matter: they’ll all vote for him in November, no matter what they say now.

Not much independent thinking there, or even much thinking for yourself. The overriding idea is that a democrat should win - period.

The right, especially conservatives, are not like that: if you cross them, they’ll punish you. They have standards, and expectations.

I see no conservative leader, and certainly no republican leader, strong, articulate, or, frankly, bright enough to change that.

I think what American conservatives need is an Articulator, someone who can speak across to the American people rather than speaking down to them. Obama, Hillary and Pelosi does that in spades. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Delay does that in spades as well.

There is a severe disconnect between our representatives on Capitol Hill and the populace they supposedly represent. If it was clearly articulated to the American people many of the obscene transgressions and corruption of our government these past few years (Law of Sea Treaty, insane environmental edicts, and secret votes for pork spending to name a few off the top of my head), I think we would be seeing a very different Presidential race.

The Articulator doesn’t even have to be running for President, but the topics would dominate the discussion.

The last President that I can think of that tried to reason with the American people rather than offer platitudes is Reagan. Sure, Reagan had his host of platitudes, but he also reported and reasoned with Americans in many of his television addresses directly to the people. I think one of the reasons this was so effective was because Reagan ultimately answered to the people, not his political party, not the media, but to the people— and he didn’t talk down to them as though they’re incompetent children. America responded to that then, and I think it will respond to that now.

The Conservatives are unaccountably melting away from the national scene without any definitive cause. They appear to be in complete disarray and their “messages” are garbled re-hashed platitudes from yesteryear’s election.

They can talk about the flat-tax unicorn until they’re blue in the face and I think no one will listen.

One thing Americans like is taking the initiative. Instead of taking the initiative to talk about things they care about, Conservatives appear to be fighting a rearguard action, and they’re grumbling, griping and whining all the way.

Though a goodly portion of America does it, we generally still don’t like contrary whiners, but we do like bold, commonsensical actions.

How many conservative politicians out there will directly address the American people and talk common sense about the environment, about energy, about the concerns of economy?

I don’t know of one.

Barack Obama has enough smarts to attempt it, even though he ends up constantly putting his foot in his mouth and talking down to people and belittling Americans. His bare pretension of talking across to the American people is gaining traction even though many, if not most, people see him as being politically expedient and false.

It resonates nonetheless. Just the attempt.

Many of the comments and suggestions above are good starting places for a national discussion. The problem is, not one of our conservative leaders truly want that discussion to take place.

And, what is the basis for the claim that adding to our domestic oil supply will have little effect on oil prices? I can’t imagine how a sufficient addition to domestic energy production could do anything but lower prices.

Zhombre, great point about jobs that can’t be outsourced. I hadn’t thought about it that way.

What is the environmental record of oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico? Why would this be any different?

Have you ever looked out at the view over the water from South Padre Island (TX) or Naples, FL? Seen any oil derricks spoiling the view?

I can’t fathom why the President of the U.S. has to go beg the Saudis to increase oil production when we do nothing at home to use our own resources. Are Arabian sands, or the coasts of Venezuela and Nigeria and Brazil, less pristine and less environmentally sensitive than American land? It is the pinnacle of arrogance and folly to allow the rest of the world to exploit their oil and sell to us at elevated prices while we do nothing to exploit our own energy sources, and effectively keep a lid on American industry and innovation.

Do any of you who comment here use Google?

I believe that the biggest North American Oil deposits are in the northern plains states (the Bakken deposits), the Rocky Mountain States (oil shale), Alberta (tar sands) and the north slope of Alaska.

Overall, North American oil reserves are believed to be bigger than those of Saudi Arabia.