by your favorite and mine,
Cal Thomas.
(...)
These good questions and criticisms are significant because they come from conservative friends of the president. As Pence said in his CPAC speech, to ask such questions "is not a sign of disloyalty, but of true loyalty to principle."
Are they listening at the White House? Perhaps they think they can dismiss conservatives with the familiar, "Where else can conservatives go?" They can "go" into inaction or they can stay home and not vote. It has happened before.
Ask President Bush No. 41, who raised taxes after promising he wouldn't. He later said it was a major mistake, but too late to win him reelection. In a close election people of principle can mean the difference between victory and defeat.
I understand reasonable people can see this and draw parallels and come up with diametrically opposed conclusions.
Here's mine...
1. The Borg have not yet assimilated everyone. Captain Picard is fighting back.
2. There really is trouble on the right, and it's not just wishful thinking on our part. We saw it in the behavior of independents in NH (NH especially, where they were angry with Bush) and Iowa.
3. Principled defectors lose elections... but for both sides. And they always threaten to stay home. For both sides. This is perfectly normal and expected behavior. And in the end, some stay home and some don't.
4. Calling this one is impossible at this stage. ABK's (because of Iraq) may be dwarfed by independent/conservative ABBs because of government spending. Or not.
5. If Kerry's ratfucking meme is a GOoPer dirty trick, shame on us.
6. The good part of a prolonged primary is Dem media coverage, hopefully interpreted as anti-Bush.
7. The bad part of a prolonged primary is that it prolongs the hurt feelings of those who (inevitably) lose. (Someone's got to lose if there's a winner).
8. Dean has/had more leeway to move toward the center (from his supporters) than anyone else. At this point, Kerry has the least tolerance, but it's hard to tell if it's because of doubts about him, annoyance because he's the front-runner, he's a stand-in for media-bashing, or (probably) all of the above. Make no mistake, however, he (and everyone else) will attempt to move to the center where cw says elections are won.
9. Bush seems like he'll have trouble moving as far to the center as Karl anticipated (Bush doesn't anticipate. That takes critical thinking). Short term, that means trouble for America as he tries to shore up his base. Hence, Pickering appointments. I fear this, short term. But he'll pay, long term.
But then... what do you think?
