Because conservatives have a deep distrust of polling agencies, they often tend to simply disregard unpleasant poll numbers. This often causes a lot of conservatives to get the wrong idea about what’s going to happen in an election — and……

That was a great line and more powerful for its truth.

(#8)
>> No more of these damned “moderates” who are so willing to “reach across the aisle” and make common cause with their – and our – political enemies. >>

I agree completely. If you’ll all pardon some invective: bipartisanship my ass.

Every time conservatives win, we are expected to reach across the aisle. Every time liberals win, it is a mandate for their kind of change. I’m sick and tired of all the double standards. Double standards for America and Israel compared to the rest of the world. Double standards for liberals and conservatives. Double standards be damned. Bipartisanship be damned. It’s time to fight.

By the way, Tiresias, I *did* finally respond to your post concerning what I and suek each wrote – where in my comment I was beyond fury with the mainstream media, and you pointed out the effects of Reagan deregulation.

In the end I agreed with you, and decided that my fury was immature and misplaced. I had a few conclusions about deregulation that you might not agree with as well…

My reply was comment #40 at:
http://www.bookwormroom.com/2008/10/28/predicting-the-election/#comments

http://www.cheatseekingmissiles.com/

September 18, 2007 — Reducing individual meat consumption by 10% may reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to an article published in the September 13 Early Online Publication issue of The Lancet.

I wonder if this is all meat or just red meat.

I bring this up, because one of the mistakes that may have been made this election was not maintaining a theme throughout the election of what the Obama energy policy will mean to American life.

We will all feel the pain when it comes to energy. Democrats are going to sign on to Kyoto, we are never going to produce one drop of new domestic production, and we are all going to learn what conservation really means.

Rahm Emanual, who may be Obama’s Chief of Staff, wrote in a 2006 book “Plans for America” it is time for a new contract with America.
1. A new social contract — universal citizen service, universal college access, universal retirement savings, and universal children’s health care — that makes clear what you can do for your country and what your country can do for you.

2. A return to fiscal responsibility and an end to corporate welfare as we know it.

3. Tax reform to help those who aren’t wealthy build wealth.

4. A new strategy to use all America’s strengths to win the war on terror.

5. A Hybrid Economy that cuts America’s gasoline consumption in half over the next decade.

If democrats go beyond the rhetoric and start requiring the move to alternate energy sources in the near term, the effect will be devastating.

A good start would be to eat less meat. Maybe we could all just eat cake.

More here:
http://volokh.com/

I do not mean us stewing — God knows we can each do that every day by ourselves without even having to come on this site to commiserate.

I mean watching the slow stew that will take place in Congress and the White House as people who clearly are out of touch with reality keep wondering why their Greenwich Village townhouse keeps blowing up on them.

Eventually the dismay will spread to the folks who lined up in Grant Park last night (a true Leni Riefenstahl moment!) to shed tears of joy at the coming of Obama.

With Bush long gone and enjoying watching the chickens scratch in Crawford, there will be nobody left to blame for all the screw-ups and pratfalls we’ll be seeing.

But hopey changey people will need SOMEBODY to blame. That’s when the stew will be ready.

In the meantime, like BobK, I will not allow my schadenfreude to become more than an occasion of venial sin.

Not really. McCain had to keep his word on campaign finance reform, so he reformed his own campaign while allowing Obama to not reform, as in take in 200 million foreign contributions.

I can’t help but hang my head and sheepishly agree. I’m ashamed that I did see it coming. Long before the Gang of Fourteen, McCain-Feingold told me everything I needed to know about Sen. McCain’s ‘maverick’ positions (and isn’t it a stunning irony that the Obama campaign outraised/outspent the McCain campain by a 6-7 to 1 ratio?). At the point of decision, my vote was definitely cast against Sen. Obama, his policy proposals, lack of accomplishment and radical associations; it was not for Sen. McCain.

I honor Sen. McCain for his service and sacrifice. Right now I wish him an honorable retirement, with many years to enjoy his family. I also say Good Riddance! to the politics of appeasement he’s practiced for many years.

As for rancor, I’m desperately trying here to not let my anger lead me into sin…

Most recently two years ago when he torpedoed the best chance that’s come along in years to get some control of the supreme court nominating process. The senate democrats, you may recall, had been pushed into a procedural corner from which there wasn’t much in the way of escape – except here came Honest John! Riding to the rescue with the Gang of Fourteen – and pissing away any chance forever of holding these people’s feet to the fire. Honorable compromise!

Problem is, John, as you NEVER seemed able to recognize; you aren’t dealing with honorable people.

Nah, at this point I just want him to go away. He’s only going to be a disaster in the senate going forward; the few republicans are going to need to be organized and are going to need to hang together, and you know damn well His Maverickness won’t do that. So I’m in full: “Yeah. Thanks for your service, would you PLEASE go away now?” mode.

I mean, come on. Barack Obama is a nothing. His resume wouldn’t fill a postcard. An aircraft carrier couldn’t float his hubris. He knows just about nothing. His associations are an atrocity. His VP is a punch-line. It’s entirely possible he’s not even a US citizen. He combines personal sleaze with overwhelming ambition and a base of experience that’s zero — and John McCain would not once confront any of it.

You bet I have a fair amount of rancor.

I can’t join in with your rancor toward Sen. McCain. He is a man who has demonstrated his love for this country with his very flesh and blood. I can’t help but respect and honor that.

That being said, I agree with the substance of your post. Though they seem quite different, Sen. McCain really embodied one of President Bush’s governing philosophies: the ‘new tone in Washington’. At the end of the day, Sen. McCain could not bring himself to aggressively advocate for conservative principles. Perhaps this is because the core conservative principle is that the best, most moral solutions are not to be found in government – and Sen. McCain was all about reaching across the aisle to find governmental solutions.

It’s time to abandon any thought of ‘working with’ Democrats and ‘moderate’ Republicans to advance conservative ideals. It’s not going to happen. Let’s recast the argument (as Book has suggested) not as conservatism vs. liberalism, but as individualism vs. statism. Conservative and liberal are neither accurate nor descriptive of the ideological division in America.

If a Republican phoenix is to rise from the ashes of a McCain candidacy, let it be an individualist party!

Hopefully the republican party fractures and goes away, too. I am well beyond fed up with them, and the one happy note in this mess they’ve engineered for us all is that I notice there is now not one single “moderate” in national government from the northeast – not one: swept away – and there are a hell of a lot fewer of them from elsewhere.

And that’s a good thing. Being a “moderate” is just Nelly-talk for saying that you actually believe in nothing – beyond whatever you have to say to get elected. I am sick of people who are a conviction-free zone. They may join McCain on the ash-heap, and we will not miss them. No more of these damned “moderates” who are so willing to “reach across the aisle” and make common cause with their – and our – political enemies. Their – and our – political enemies are such ilk as Reid, Pelosi, Fwank, Schumer, Boxer, Murtha et al; people whom you would not allow into your home, and who’s word at any time on any subject is no damn good at all.

Hopefully we can start digging out the actual conservatives – they’re out there – and make some sense in two years in the congressional elections after Obama has so offended everyone that he’s gone down the identical road as Clinton.