The moderate Republicans in this party won’t even stand by one of their own anymore if he is trailing in the weeks leading up to the election. Poor John McCain. He did everything they wanted him to do. And they still deserted him like rats.

The David Brooks’, the Peggy Noonan’s, the Christopher Buckley’s, the Kathleen Parker’s, they all jumped ship because they could see what was coming.

I’m a big fan of Ann Coulter, have been for years. Michelle Malkin too.

Question: If you’ve read any of Ann’s columns over the years, and Michelle’s, did you ever notice what sort of opinion they have of the people that have been running the Republican Party even before Ronald Reagan rode off into the sunset?

Do they have a high opinion of them or a low opinion of them?

If you’ve read their columns, you know very well that Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin have an EXTREMELY LOW OPINION of the current leadership in the Republican Party.

What reasons have been given for this very low opinion?

I can remember several.

1. They don’t fight back. They spend a lot of time apologizing…..AFTER they have been unjustly attacked.

2. They really don’t believe in conservatism, they don’t think conservative issues are winning issues, and therefore treat the vast conservative base as almost an afterthought. They think forming a party that appeals to Dem’s and Indys is more important than building a party that appeals to conservatives.

Here’s your big heaping dose of reality, my fellow conservatives:

A real conservative hasn’t run for President since Reagan in 1984. That was almost 25 years ago.

Who’s headed each Republican ticket since then?

George H.W. Bush / Dan Quayle? Elected to one term, basically on the STRENGTH of promising to continue Reagan’s successful policies. Unfortunately, as quickly became apparent (and was known all along inside Washington) Bush the Elder was no conservative; he was a moderate Republican and quickly reneged on some key principles, including breaking his promise not to raise taxes.

Here we see the “Moderate Republican/Solid Conservative” model tried and it worked – for one election. Dukakis ran proudly as a liberal, the last Dem. candidate to do so, making Bush’s job much easier.

But against a Southern Governor running as a conservative ‘New Democrat’, the Clinton/Gore ticket managed to make Bush /Quayle look clueless and listless and tied to Washington.

Had the Dem’s run a out and proud liberal Bush might have held his own even still, but against a fresh face, a ‘conservative’ Dem from the South, old Washington hand Bush looked out of touch.

So the moderate Republican loses to the ‘New Democrat’ who really was an ultra-liberal running in disguise.

Well by 1996 Bill Clinton’s mask had dropped off. The country had watched scandal after scandal envelop him as well as seeing him break most of his campaign promises and governing as a doctrinaire liberal (something that led to the Republicans ‘invading’ Congress and ’seizing’ power in the 1994 mid-terms).

So how is it a vulnerable Clinton won re-election handily?

Simple.

The moderate Republicans running the RNCC made sure one of their most moderate number won the nomination. Bob Dole.

Doles’ “It’s My Turn And I’d Like The Job Even Though I Don’t Have Any Big Ideas or Direction I’d Like To Take The Country In” campaign was as listless, lost and meandering as the one we just watched McCain suffer through.

Republican pundits like to focus on the fact that Dole got outspent 3 to 1 (while Obama just outspent McCain by an even larger margin – 5 to 1), but the simple fact of the matter is even if he had more money to spend that Clinton, Dole had no coherent message.

Once again the ’safe’ method of putting a Moderate Conservative at the top of the ticket with a Strong Conservative sidekick was tried. Bob Dole teamed up with Jack Kemp was supposed to be a ticket that would appeal to conservative Dems and independents,while pulling in some conservatives as well.

Despite the fact that the country knew exactly what it was getting….again…..it opted to return the Clintons to the White House rather than give Dole the job.

So…..gearing up for the 2000 campaign, the Republican party decided to……..try the same thing again.

It found a Moderate Republican in Texas Governor George W. Bush, teamed him up with Dick Cheney, and ran him against Al Gore / Joe Lieberman.

What resulted was the closest election in modern history.

After winning the nomination by appealing to the conservative base, Bush then moved to the middle and tried the key RNCC strategy of trying to draw Dem’s and Indys to the ticket.

Instead he almost lost the election.

Not content with almost screwing up 2000, Karl Rove and others convinced Bush to try it again in 2004, where once again Bush tacked to the middle, and instead of slaughtering John Kerry like he should have, Bush managed a narrow win.

Having learned absolutely nothing from 2000 and 2004, the RNCC decided to set up the nomination process for 2008 so that the most moderate/liberal parts of the country would choose the RNC frontrunner for the primaries. This was their strategy to ensure yet again that a Moderate Republican wound up on the top of the ticket.

And it worked.

John McCain won the nomination, then tried to get the conservative base to hop aboard the bandwagon by selecting Sarah Palin, Strong Conservative Governor of Alaska as his running mate.

The strategy, once again, was to have McCain tack strongly to the middle as a Moderate Republican so as to appeal to the 50 or so Moderate Republicans in the country, while also drawing in conservative Dem’s and independantes, as Palin worked the heartland and drew in the hicks and bible-thumpers and hoi polloi from the Red States.

And once this time….not only did this flawed strategy not produce a narrow win, it instead delivered an election landslide in favor of a 1st term Senator with absolutely no record to run on.

What does this mean for 2012?

Here’s your second Big Heaping Dose of Reality, my conservative friends.

The current Republican Party leadership is NOT GOING ANYWHERE unless BIG changes are made.

Unless something is done, STARTING NOW, they will STILL BE THERE IN 2012.

AND IF YOU THINK THERE’S ANY CHANCE AT ALL THEY LET A REAL CONSERVATIVE ANYWHERE NEAR THE TOP OF THEIR TICKET, YOU ARE DREAMING, MY FRIENDS.

Sarah Palin in 2012?

Are you NUTS?

Did you not just see what happened the last 7 weeks?

After trying to make her the ‘fall guy’ for their failed strategy, and not even waiting for the election to be over before starting to point fingers at her, do you REALLY THINK these same people turn around and hand their nomination to her in 2012?

You’re DREAMING.

In 2012 we end up with another Moderate Republican with some ’safe’ conservative tacked on as an afterthought to appeal to the hicks out there.

Plus every real conservative politician out there just had a 7 week primer on what they can expect should they step up to the plate even as the VP pick on the ticket.

They AND THEIR FAMILY can expect to get a big heaping dose of what Sarah Palin just got.

Sarah Palin in 2012?

She can throw her hat in the ring if she wants, but if she thinks the RNCC is going to even give her an exploratory phone call she’s sadly mistaken. As far as they are concerned, they wouldn’t mind if they never saw her again.

Would she even volunteer to put herself and her family through this again starting in 2010? She might. But if she does I’m letting you know right now, I’m preparing you all for the distinct lack of enthusiasm the Republican Party leadership would have for putting her anywhere near their ticket.

She would have to do what Reagan did, which is to build a coalition so strong and so big and so powerful that despite getting turned away for Ford in 1976, by 1980 even the RNCC had to finally hand him nomination, albeit reluctantly.

Could she do it?

I don’t know. I hope she would. We need to have strong conservative leaders rise up and challenge these spineless cowards that are currently running the Republican party. She could be the first of many.

We have 2 years until the mid-terms in 2010. A lot can happen until then.

One of the things I hope to see happen is a huge hue and cry among conservatives everywhere as they see what Barack and Co. have planned for our country and focusing that outrage on the RNCC leadership and kicking them all out when it becomes apparent they not only have no coherent strategy to take the Democrats on, they are still stuck trying the same failed ideas of the past.

Barack Obama was not inevitable.

We have a RNCC that insists on running Moderate Republicans because they are CONVINCED conservatives ‘frighten’ the country and could never win so they will never allow one to be at the top of their precious ticket.

It’s time for a change – and THIS is change we conservatives can believe in.

manofaiki on November 5, 2008 at 6:05 PM