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.

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

Good luck Chris.

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.

So many are down on being a conservative at the moment and the truth is, few leaders for the last eight years have modeled / pushed true conservatism.  For some reason the Republican Party continues to stray from his core principles and embrace elements of ideas that we simply do not believe in.  Reading essays like this make it a little easier to support McCain even though this article has nothing to do with him.

Enjoy, or not.

David Mamet: Why I Am No Longer a ‘Brain-Dead Liberal’

Well, we get what we pay for. We have officially paid for George W. Bush. McCain is no conservative but he is a heck of a lot better than Obama or Clinton. It is surprising that polls show Obama only slightly behind McCain among Republicans. That clearly shows how disillusioned our party is. Obama is a socialist, but he is a nice socialist. He has the charisma and the ability to articulate and sell the extreme socialist, liberal agenda like no one else. I must admit he is impressive. In reality, we as a country might need an Obama figure to show us the “Clinton” years again. It will then swing back our way, but probably not for another 8 years. That is my assessment and it is obviously open to criticism.

McCain will have to answer too many questions about his record. He will be fighting his way out of a hole the entire election as he tries to cover up / repair his record to make him palatable for the right wing (which he needs a good percentage of to even have a chance). On the flip side, he will go into the election with a lot more cash on hand. The current battle between Clinton and Obama will suck them dry. I have not looked into this but I bet many have maxed out to either candidate and will be unable to help the Democratic winner in their final push. Obama’s fundraising ability scares me more because a lot of his base is young and idealistic and will chuck money at him to beat McCain (McCain wears the scarlet letter R next to his name; R = W). Obama’s average donation is pretty low which leaves more room to nickel and dime his way to a hefty campaign coffer.

Here is a list of things that McCain will have to explain / punt on.

1.) Bush’s Tax Cuts: He voted against them in 2001 and for them in 2006
2.) Immigration: He supports amnesty
3.) Iraq: Supports the war and has made fairly bold statements about the length of time he is willing to remain there
4.) Campaign Finance: McCain-Feingold – I will say no more

On top of these pretty big issues, he will need to defeat Obama’s (assuming the Democrats do not bite the hand that feeds them; a.k.a the African American vote) anti-war, pro-socialized medicine, populist message of hope.

I think this may be too much for the 71 year old man.