Posts Tagged ‘conservatism fights back’

The difference between Can’t and Won’t

Posted: July 27, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
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The AP reports that the democrats can’t pass heathcare without the republicans:

Democratic and GOP officials acknowledged Sunday that Obama’s ambitious plan would not pass without the aid of a doubtful GOP, whose members are almost united against the White House effort.

“Look, there are not the votes for Democrats to do this just on our side of the aisle,” said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., the chairman of the budget committee.

The reality is not that they can’t it is that they won’t. These people know what this bill will do to the country and to their electoral futures. Those democrats are not going to give up their political futures just to give president Obama a cheap win (well not cheap).

Don Suber has the right idea:

Republicans should say to hell with the Democrats and the unprecedented and infantile partisanship of the president. The way to win back control of Congress and the presidency is to deny Obama the nation-breaking health insurance program that he wants.

He is right about that, but the big thing is we also need to deny the democrats in General and President Obama in particular the chance to shift the blame. In the Senate our famous Republicans from Maine will provide him with some cover but in the house he won’t get cover unless we give it to them.

If republicans in the house choose to give them that cover then they don’ t deserve our votes, if the republican party aids this monstrosity then they don’t derseve our funds.

Why Matthews is focusing on the Birther stuff…

Posted: July 22, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
Tags: ,

There is a simple reason why Matthews is focusing on the Birther stuff. It’s a variation of the reason why MSNBC spends all its time focusing on the minority republicans.

If they fail to focus on Republicans they have to focus on Democrats as the people in charge and thus the people who are at fault for the current situation.

The end result of focusing on attacks on Rush etc have created an additional demand for Rush and the arguments against Obama’s programs. Since public opinion is starting to turn they want to avoid featuring what is basically a series of successful republican arguments.

So if you won’t focus on what the democrats are doing and you don’t want to focus on republican arguments that have resonance what do you do?

You focus on the one argument that is off the wall, the argument that has the least credible supporters and are the easiest to be used to make their supporters look like fools, the “birther” argument.

The ultimate goal is to paint the tea party people with the same brush as the birthers so they will attempt to forge a link. I suspect the Ron Paul supporters will be an excellent tool for this.

Paul is mostly awful but his is correct on two significant issues, abortion and spending, many of his supports were at the Boston Tea Party that I attended. If I was Matthews et/al I would not miss a chance to paint all tea parties as an extension of this.

Update: Even worse it forces people like Charles Johnson to agree with Matthews. If the GOP chooses to embrace this then we are shooting ourselves in the foot.

Another Palin Believer

Posted: July 15, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
Tags: ,

Patrick at the Green Room runs with my Palin congress stuff from the 4th of July and adds meat to it.

Sarah Palin should run for Congress. All of it. And that may actually be her plan.

Imagine a midterm election and its historically low turnout (29% to 60% for Midterms vs. 48% to 78% for Presidential years). Imagine an agitated conservative base after two years of Obamanomics and a wary public likely concerned about the economy and the government’s leftward tilt. Now imagine a full-time crowd-raising money-machine candidate without a national office to run for, with a free hand to back Democrats and Republicans — many of whom will no doubt invite her in — and a grudge against just about everyone, including many “party insiders” over whom she’d love to lord a few Palin-powered victories. Like I said when the NRCC revoked its fundraiser speaking offer to her in June,

I’ve heard that argument somewhere but not with this key detail:

Based on the 2008 election, I count at least 19 seats that went narrowly for Democrats and could go narrowly, or better, for Republicans with enough nudging and some good candidates…Between Palin and the NRCC, the Republican Party could make some definite plays here, ideally meaning that the NRCC can devote more time to finding candidates for districts outside the 2008 narrow-loss band.

And that doesn’t even take into account the bandwagon effect that those successes can have. Or the Cash.

One more thing on the Sotomayor hearings…

Posted: July 15, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
Tags: , ,

…This is the moment where the defection of Arlen Specter is paying big dividends. Can you imagine the pass she would be getting if Specter was the chief republican questioner on this panel?

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