This list is, by no means, exhaustive.  But all of it and more have compounded to slash the President’s RealClearPolitics approval average from 44.2% approval in January of 2009 to 0.3% disapproval presently–only 14 months after his inauguration.  Rasmussen’s Presidential Approval Index rating (the percentage of 1500 likely voters who view the President’s performance favorably minus the percentage who view it unfavorably) is -20, which is only one point above the all-time low.  Congress’ approval rating is currently in the mid teens, while its disapproval rating is near 80%.  Rasmussen’s Right Direction/Wrong Track poll finds that 68% of Americans think we’re headed down the tubes, while only 27% think we’re on the right path. 

Nationwide, Speaker Pelosi has an approval rating in the 20% range.  Meanwhile, she and the President are whipping their Party into shape on healthcare.  They are shamelessly, and in full view of the public, promising myriad political favors for “yea” votes and threatening primary challenges and withholding of Democrat funds for “nay” votes.  They are deliberately seeking members who are retiring for vote conversion.  They are buying off Mary Landrieu and Ben Nelson, flying Dennis Kucinich on Air Force One, and appointing the brother of a previously “undecided” Utah congressman to a Federal court vacancy.  So much for Pelosi’s promise to lead “the most transparent Congress in history.”  Americans aren’t dumb.  We see right through this smoke-and-mirrors sham.

It’s easy to see, too: Republican (and all around right-winger) Bob McDonnell defeated Democrat Creigh Deeds in Virginia’s 2009 Gubernatorial election 53%-47%.  New Jersey, a bulwark of liberalism, ousted a crassly-corrupt Governor Corzine in favor of a fiscal conservative US Attorney who successfully prosecuted scores of nefarious politicians.  Chris Christie won with a 100,000 vote margin in that state.  And Scott Brown, a truck-driving regular guy who ran on being the 41st vote against healthcare, defeated smarmy snob Martha Coakley in the Massachusetts (!) race to replace the most liberal senator of all time, Ted Kennedy.  Looking ahead to the Senate race of 2010, here is where the match-ups stand, according to Rasmussen (ten seats needed to gain control):

• Delaware (to replace Biden, since the (D) appointee is not serving a full term):  Castle (R) 53% v. Coons (D) 32%  (February 25)
• North Dakota (open seat):  Hoeven (R) 71% v. Potter (D) 17%  (February 12)
• Arkansas (Democrat incumbent; 4 GOP challengers):     Boozman (R) 48% v. Lincoln (D) 39%  (March 2) Lincoln has recently run an ad stating “I don’t answer to my Party” and another attacking unions (rather unusual for a Democrat).
• Nevada (Majority leader “Dingy” Harry’s seat; 2 GOP challengers):  Lowden (R) 51% v. Reid (D) 38%  (March 5)
• Colorado (Democrat incumbent; may not re-enter race):  Norton (R) 48% v. Bennet (D) 39%  (March 2)
• Pennsylvania (Democrat incumbent; traitor):  Toomey (R) 49% v. Specter (D) 40%  (March 15)
• Washington (Democrat incumbent; 3 GOP challengers):  Rossi (R) 49% (hasn’t even announced yet) v. Patty Murray (D) 46%  (March 9)  Once Rossi announces and the GOP primary is over, he has a very good shot
• Wisconsin (Democrat incumbent; 2 GOP challengers):  Thompson (R) 47% (hasn’t even announced yet) v. Feingold (D) 45% (March 16)
• Indiana (open seat- Bayh retiring):  Three Republicans lead Two Democrats with very comfortable margins (February 18)

If Republicans win these seats and retain the same in KY, LA, MO, NH, NC, FL, OK, and OH (all of which show GOP leads currently), they will only need to pick up one Senate seat to gain control.  In California, there is a three-way race in the GOP primary between a former congressman, a state assemblyman, and former HP CEO Carly Fiorina.  The June 8th primary will solidify support behind one candidate, and Barbara Boxer will have some serious explaining to do.  Oregon can’t be discounted either; incumbent Democrat Ron Wyden is polling below 50% in a very liberal state.

The GOP Senate primary in Florida is raising plenty of eyebrows, as Marco Rubio leads Governor Charlie Crist 54% to 36%.  Rubio’s speech at CPACwas nothing short of brilliant.  He embodies conservatism and is the child of defiant Cuban immigrants who fled their communist nation to find hope (the real kind) in the United States.  Rubio’s parents worked tirelessly to provide their son the opportunity he would never have had in Cuba.  And he is going to soundly defeat his Democrat opponent in November. 

In the House, Beltway pundits universally hold there will be tremendous losses for Democrats.  Even liberals concede that point.  Some estimates are in the 40s and 50s, but Dick Morris claims it may be upwards of 80 seats if Queen Nancy gets her way and forces healthcare through today.  What this exercise in tyranny has taught us more than anything: there is no longer such a thing as a moderate Democrat.  None of them can be trusted; not one.  America sees this now, and Obama’s platitudes of “hope” and “change” have been exposed for what they were all along: absolute fraud.

We have an awesome opportunity to seize on this truth, so we must continue to be active and grow our numbers.  Within the Tea Party movement, there have been loud cries for some kind of third party.  While I sympathize deeply with this sentiment given the Republicans’ bad behavior in 2003-2006, it is completely and utterly impractical.  The only thing third parties have ever served to do is spoil elections.  Even Ron Paul knows this, and it’s why he ran as a Republican.  In recent years, we saw this happen with Perot in 1992 and 1996.  On the other side, Ralph Nader (bless his heart) ruined Al Gore’s candidacy in 2000. 

While Rasmussen’s generic congressional ballot finds Republicans having a 10-point lead over Democrats in a two-party race, it also finds that, in a three-party race between a Democrat, a Republican, and a Tea Party candidate, Democrats get 34% of the vote, Republicans 27%, and Tea Party 21%.  What does that mean?  It means that three parties afford the Democrats continued control.  We have to learn to work within the confines of the system we have.  As long as there are primary elections, there will be a two-party system in this country.  We must unite as conservatives and bring our Party back to its roots, not throw out the baby with the bathwater.  We have to regain control of the Republican establishment so that we can reject liberals like New York’s Dede Scozzafava and throw the infrastructural weight of the GOP behind true conservatives like her primary opponent, Doug Hoffman.  And this movement cannot just be a national one.  It is and must continue to be very much a local one.

With the Left’s victories in the 2006 and 2008 elections, conservative hearts began to sink, their bearers wondering if Reagan’s optimistic proclamation of “Morning in America” had devolved into “Mourning in America” in just two decades.  The writing was on the wall: George Bush had blown all of his political capital from the midterms of 2002 and his post-9/11 popularity on the war in Iraq, and had abandoned his once-heralded commitment to fiscal responsibility for a legacy of what he understood to be “compassionate conservatism.”  Republicans in Congress were complicit in the realignment of the Party, becoming a rubber-stamp for spending initiatives and harebrained big-government ideas like No Child Left Behind and the Medicare prescription entitlement.  Despite conservatives’ stalwart stand on its unconstitutionality–regardless of any enticing short-term political gain (i.e.: regulations on unions and 527s)–McCain-Feingold passed in 2002, trampling on political free-speech. 

In 2006, conservatives, disillusioned by their Party’s spinelessness, stayed home.  The Democrats wrested control of both houses of Congress.  In 2008, the Republican nominee for President was a 72-year-old moderate (at best) whose favorite song was “Dancing Queen” (1976).  John McCain previously called Christian conservatives ”agents of intolerance,” and he was the architect of the aforementioned “Campaign Finance Reform” legislation.  Virginia and Indiana, once Republican bastions, voted for a Democrat for President for the first time in 44 years.  North Carolina went blue for the first time since 1976.  The GOP lost the swing states of Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Florida, Ohio, and Iowa.  Here in Harford County, a fiery and unapologetically pro-life Maryland State Senator who inspired conservatives with his message of limited government handily defeated a perennial incumbent RINO in the primary for Maryland’s first Congressional district, only to be upset by a Democrat in the general election in a region where John McCain enjoyed an 18-point margin of victory.  To add insult to injury, pundits like James “The Ragin’ Cajun” Carville declared that the political climate post-Obama would yield 40 years of Democrat dominance. 

Don’t count your chickens before they hatch, Mr. Carville.

See, what conservatives and liberals alike didn’t presage as Obama enjoyed his late winter honeymoon with America in 2009, was quite obvious when one considers elections of the past: when Americans are reminded of what hegemonic Democrat control of the White House and Congress actually means to them, the phrase “buyer’s remorse” becomes a gross understatement.  For their utter lack of practical aptitude, those on the Left are just plain dangerous when it comes to forcing their agenda down the throats of unwilling Americans.  In a little over one year, a President who had promised bi-partisanship and transparency, lamented his predecessor’s deficit spending, and reminded the American public ad nauseum of an “inherited recession,” has

• Increased the national debt by $2,000,000,000,000 and quadrupled the deficit with two “stimulus” packages
• Overseen a rise in unemployment from 7.4% in December of 2008 to 10.1% in October of 2009 (10 months), with a meager drop to 9.7% currently–this despite claims that passing record spending measures would keep it below 8%
• Made the United States government the majority stockholder of General Motors
• Bowed to other world leaders while traveling abroad and apologizing for “American arrogance,” hence rejecting American exceptionalism
• Increased the quantity and expanded the power of ”czars,” which require no confirmation hearings (nor apparently, in Mr. Obama’s case, any vetting)
• Had nearly a score of nominees or appointees resign due to tax evasion or extremely radical tendencies
• Spent a fruitless 14 months lobbying for government-run healthcare, holding closed-door meetings with only the majority party (despite promises to air all debate on C-SPAN), forcing multiple votes on the floor of the House and Senate that ignore a growing 65-35% public stance against the legislation, thereby endangering the careers and political legacy of members of his own party
• Nominated activist Eric Holder for Attorney General
• Promised the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, broadcasting to the world his preferred plan of imprisoning enemy combatants within the borders of the United States
• Played to his fringe base of America-blaming, ACLU-supporting sycophants (or as we call them, “Democrats”), by proposing we try 9/11 conspirators in US civilian court.  His puzzling defense against criticism for this process?  Citing the fact that the shoe bomber was also read his Miranda Rights.  Never mind the fact that Richard Reid was arrested two months after 9/11, before we had any detention facility or legal precedent for punishing al-Qaeda terrorists.  Never mind that Jose Padilla was held as an enemy combatant five short months later.  But good defense, Mr. Obama.  We can see how popular trying KSM in New York has become with the folks in Manhattan.

I am excited to announce that there will be at least two new contributers to the site.  They picked similar names which was kind of interesting considering the fact that they don’t know each other.  They will start posting soon.  Their screen names will be Gipper2 and GipperGOPer.  Both are young conservatives who have worked hard to keep Harford County Republican.  I look forward to reading their posts.

It might be time to get back to work.  Harford County has a pretty incredible lineup in the current Republican Primary.  It’s almost got me excited enough to start paying attention again.  We will see.  I have also been approached by several people to fill in and possibly share the blog.  That is my ultimate goal; several writers with different likes and dislikes.  That way we can keep it fresh and you don’t have to listen to me all the time.  See you soon, maybe.

For those of you that still read, which I assure you it’s not many these days, I am prepared to sign off of HarfordRepublican.com indefinitely.  I am interested in passing the torch to the next “GOPerative” who has an interest in keeping the site alive.  With an election season just around the corner this site could still play a role in swaying Republican opinion as I am confident it did in the last election cycle.  If you are interested and would like to become the new site author, please email me at harfordgop@gmail.com.  You would have complete access to the site and would be free to write what you like.  I would move into the CEO role and you would be the author.  The site would be hosted and owned by me but the GOPerative would not write any more (or at least very infrequently).  Until someone else decides to write for the site, I am saying sayonara Thanks everyone!

Well done Chairman Steele!  We knew you would do it.

Michael Steele was selected as the first African-American chairman of the RNC.

Senator Harris’ campaign manager is moving on.  That was not a surprise at all.  Meekins was one of the campaign staff members that I alluded to in an earlier post who rubbed more than a few people the wrong way.  While David Nitkin was semi-flattering of Chris, I don’t know many people in this neck of the woods that would be so kind.  Anyways, read the post at Maryland Politics for yourself.

Good luck Chris.

Here is a decent summary of past and possible future events.  Can’t say I agree that this country is left-of-center but it’s a decent analysis.

GOP Bridge to Nowhere by Eugene Robinson

The Harris campaign did a pretty good job at circulating their poll numbers from the summer.  The numbers showed a 15+ point lead.  Since that poll the Democratic Party pumped in millions of dollars to knock off Senator Harris and it appears that they may have won.  This district was designed to lump right leaning voters into one district.  Wayne Gilchrest pretended to be a Republican and it worked for him until this year.  Who knew that he could have been what he really was, a Democrat, and kept his seat?  The district is split 50/50 between Baltimore/Harford Counties against the rest of the district.  Baltimore and Harford County voted 60/40 for Harris.  If Andy split the shore vote he would have won.  The problem was, he got wiped 60/40 on most of the shore.  In fact, Andy only carried 3 counties.  The conservative Baltimore/Harford vote was counter balanced perfectly by the shore vote.  It’s a great strategy by shore candidates to pit the North against the South.  If the shore candidates can solidify their backyard we will continue to see shore candidates carry the day.

So where do we start in the blame game.  Everyone has their own ideas I am sure.

#1:  The Issues
I have seen almost all of the mailers sent out by both campaigns and I must say that the whole “failed” prosecutor stunt was a flop.  It was just too nit picky to sway voters.  Kratovil’s website quickly explained away the mailers.  Kratovil is pretty moderate on the issues that matter to conservatives (probably other than abortion).  Kratovil even got an ‘A’ from the NRA.  I don’t believe for a minute that he will vote the right way in Washington.  Harris tried to paint him as a liberal and the accusation didn’t seem to stick.  It was the old Karl Rove trick, keep repeating ‘weapons of mass destruction’ and people will eventually believe it.  The liberal, failed/soft on crime prosecutor shtick just didn’t float on the shore.  They knew him best and they liked him.  The race seemed to target the Northern part of the district and that kind of politicking works up here.  We don’t care for liberals up here and we beat them down 60/40 every time.  It may have been a better strategy to say, “He says he’s a conservative but we KNOW Andy is a Conservative.”  Kratovil’s ads tying Andy to ‘dirty’ money had to have been effective.  They were pretty good ads.  Andy should have pointed out Kratovil’s donor base and there had to have been some pretty far left organizations giving money to him.  “Liberals are always wrong”…that strategy was wrong.

#2: The Central Committees
In my opinion, we have some of the most worthless Republican Central Committees around.  I know several volunteers in the Harris and Matthews campaigns and they all say that they got little to no support from most of the members of the Central Committees throughout the districts.  I understand that running for office is kind of cool and getting your name selected by a few thousand people because your last name starts with a ‘C’ makes you feel important but you are not important unless you actually do what you are supposed to.  MOST OF YOU FAILED!!  Some of the campaigns never saw your face and wouldn’t know who you were if you punched them in the face.  The names will start to come out as well.  If you are on the Republican Central Committee and you are not in the hospital and you did not support the local candidates for Congress, enjoy your last two years because rumors of Central Committee revolution abound (starting with the top).

#3: Local Elected Officials
To be honest, I heard more from ex-Gov. Bob Ehrlich than most of our local elected officials.  It was a little late in the game but Bob Ehrlich is still very popular here in Harford County.  I am sure his endorsement (which costs him nothing) was good for Harris.  What I would have liked to see was a mailer or TV ad with Jacobs, Glassman, McComas, Stifler, and other eastern shore R’s all standing with Andy.  Maybe it was there and I just missed it, but I doubt it.  It seems that some internal bickering may have gotten the better of the Harris campaign.

I have heard other rumors about abrasive Harris campaign staff members from several different people but I will save that one for another time.

If Andy Harris loses we need to figure out why and blaming McCain/Bush, which is certainly valid, is not good enough.  There were other problems that need to be addressed.

I want to thank George W. Bush for the complete destruction of the Republican Party.  You leave behind $10 Trillion in debt, an occupation of an unwilling country, hatred around the world, torture abuse scandals, and a voter base that has no idea what it means to be “Republican” any more.  It will take 8 years of Obama for us to regain our foothold so we can stand up.  We are not simply knocked down at the moment, we are knocked out – on the gurney – and on the way to the hospital for some intensive care.

At the writing of this post Andy Harris is down by 1,000 votes.  That clearly shows you the damage George W. Bush and his nation building kind have done.  District 1 will probably be represented by a moderate Democrat who will support Obama’s “New Deal” 99% of the time.   I know I will be watching his votes like a hawk.  I won’t advocate his flushing if he votes conservatively like his ads say he is.  But if he starts to pull the typical bait and switch I will work to make him a 1-term Congressman (all this assuming Andy lost).

Here is a little Conservative “poll” to see how you are doing.  Circle the statement (in your mind) that you agree with:

#1

A. Attacking sovereign nations is a good idea, especially when they have mean dictators.  OR

B. Sovereign nations should not be attacked unless they have made clear, real, undeniable threats to the United State and physical proof (not from British intelligence agencies) can be shown.

#2

A. It’s OK to spend money that you don’t have and run a deficit equal to what the United States produces in one entire year.  OR

B. We should have a balanced budget, cut the fat, and avoid deficit spending whenever possible (which is always).

#3

A. Wall Street is our economy, so when businesses screw up we should bail them out for their mismanagement. OR

B. Wall Street is not our economy and if it is we should open casinos there too because they are more fun and easier to play.

If you answered A to any of the questions above, you are an official KoolAid drinker.  Congratulations, you are not a conservative.  You have been defending George W. Bush for so long that you forgot why you were a conservative.

Hopefully Barak Obama’s victory (and Kratovil’s locally) will help the real conservative nature of the Republican Party re-emerge so they can get people like myself behind them once again.  A new Contract with America needs to be formed and embraced by the next wave of Republican candidates.  We no longer have to support or vote for Bush’s failed policies whether they be foreign affairs of bailout/stimulus packages.

I know this sounds like a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking but the reality is we need to hit the restart button.  We may need to rebuild the computer entirely.  The rebuilding can start right here in Harford County.

Out with the old, in with the new.