Before getting to the main event, I want to make it clear that I will absolutely not be covering the Al Gore and Tipper Gore divorce. When I heard the news I was genuinely saddened. I don’t like to see any marriage fail. I have always found Al Gore to be a sanctimonious gasbag, but he is still a human being. Unless there is any remote political angle that comes out of this story, it is a personal matter.
Another story I hope to avoid at all costs is the Sestak story.
Some Republicans are calling for a special prosecutor to investigate what potential payoff the Obama White House offered Joe Sestak to drop his primary challenge against Arlen Specter.
I am pleading with the conservatives and Republicans to leave this issue alone. Let it go. Stay as far away from it as possible.
I say this for only one reason. If we Republicans pursue this…we will lose. We will lose badly.
Don’t I want to get to the truth?
No. Not at all.
I want to win the 2010 elections and stop the Obama train of liberalism. This issue is begging for conservative overreaching that will result in sympathy for the White House.
Republicans need to accept the fact that Barack Obama is above the law. Rules do not apply to him. He is a liberal. Only conservatives can be corrupt. Liberals are never guilty of anything.
I am not being sarcastic. I am deadly serious about this one.
There are people on this planet who believe that Bill Clinton is a morally finer person than George W. Bush. What those people really mean is that they preferred Clinton’s policies, but separating the political from the personal does not exist on the left. The personal is political.
Bill Clinton and Al Gore repeatedly broke the law. Their 1996 reelection was rife with illegal fundraising. They understood that campaign finance reform was an inside the beltway issue that main street found boring. Al Gore used the phrase “no controlling legal authority” to justify his violations.
The Clinton White House used the IRS to dig up dirt on enemies and audit them. Yawn.
Bill Clinton lied under oath in a deposition. Snore.
People called George W. Bush a liar even though he did not lie about the war at all. He was truthful. In his eight years there was not a single credible scandal. Enron had nothing to do with him, and he was never accused in the coverup of a non-crime by a staffer.
Yet Republicans are pilloried while liberal Democrats get free passes.
Life is not fair. The media hates the guts of conservatives. Barack Obama is their noble, virtuous God who promised to make the oceans rise. They have too much invested in him to put up with a “Republican witch hunt.”
We need to go after the president on his awful health care law, cap and trade, raising taxes, and other policy issues. We can win on policy. We cannot win on personality.
Some will argue that his star is fading, but those people are living in a dreamworld. Bill Clinton was toast in 1994, and two years later easily won reelection.
We cannot win the personality game against this man. He is the ultimate cult of personality. He got elected because of this.
The minute proceedings are brought against him, somebody on the left will find a statement that a prosecutor may have made 30 years ago that will prove that every Republican criticism of the president is racially motivated. It will make what the left did to demonize Ken Starr seem like child’s play.
Clinton fired 93 attorneys and nobody cared. George W. Bush fired 8 of them, and he was investigated. Liberals complained that the “way it was done” seemed suspicious. The media blindly accepted this, because they do that.
Republicans will never defeat Mr. Obama on style. They proved this in 2008. John McCain was an American hero and one of the most honorable men ever to enter public service. Barack Obama was up to his neck in typical Chicago corruption. The public did not care.
Americans want their president to provide a strong economy and keep us safe. In a nutshell, this means cut taxes and kill terrorists.
We will never get to the truth of this story anyway since there are no audiotapes or videotapes. Sestak has his version, Obama has his, and they will all coordinate their responses. This is not like plugging an oil leak. It is easy.
True, one question could be asked. Why the heck can’t Bill Clinton stay out of trouble?
Even that is a non-story. The public long ago shrugged its shoulders and decided that the morally bankrupt Clintons were fine as long as the stock market was rising.
If the Republicans want to lose in 2010, they should pursue a scandal and allow a backlash that will result in sympathy for Mr. Obama.
If they want to win, go after Mr. Obama on his failed policies.
The issue is not what happened. The issue is whether the public will think it matters.
They won’t.
Mr. Obama could kill 20 Republicans and stuff the bodies in the trunk of a car. He will blame the Bush administration and everyone will nod their heads. The man is above the law.
He is above the law. He can be as corrupt as he wants, as long as he remains politically liberal.
Leave the Sestak issue alone.
eric
Absolutely correct. Whether the Sestak issue is technically against the law or not, such horsetrading is a fact of political life. The Republican party are going to make themselves look petty if they keep hammering on about it. One of the reasons why Bill Clinton managed to survive impeachment, was that the Republican party had previously tried to turn every little misdemenour into another Watergate . I’m not a fan of Lee Attawater, or his dog-whistling, but he was strategically correct when he took a look at the Mountain of opposition research on Michael Dukakis and said “don’t bring me all that rubbish, just give me an index card with three things on it” (the focus should be the deficit, Obama’s weakness on Iran and bailouts).
Returning to Israel, while the blockade is necessary, although too broadly based (what justification is there for banning the importation of chickens and goats into Gaza?), the unnecessary death of several protestors has played into the hands of Israel’s critics, distracted attention from the mounting threat from Iran and enabled Obama to store up political capital, which he can use to justify inaction against Tehran (or even reprisals against any future Israeli airstrikes). It also raises questions about Netanyahu’s competence. Instead of building a Congressional consensus in favour of pre-emptive action against Iran’s nuclear facilities, or taking action directly, he has fallen into the trap of trying to use policy towards the PA as a bargaining chip. Not only is this a morally and strategic bad move in itself, but it overlooks the fact that Obama’s real priority is stopping Israel from defending itself from Khamenei’s regime.
“such horsetrading is a fact of political life”. That is a big part of the problem. Horsetrading is “not” against the law. Law breaking “is” against the law. Dems have demonstrated repeatedly they have “no” respect for any law that gets in their way. That fact makes them criminal. Republicans that break the law are held accountable at least in the press.
Republicans have no one who can step up and be a leader in 2010 nor 2012. There is not one person touted as a contender that I want to support in 2012. Unless some one with some real nerve steps out in front of the public and addresses the issues that real Americans want addressed (and don’t ask what the issues are because every one knows dam well what I talking about), these upcoming elections will mean nil. The criminals in D.C. will remain in D.C. and continue to run us in the ground unless we as voters remove them, all of them. I don’t see or hear anyone saying anything about the real corruption, arrogance and featherbedding that is driving us into the abyss of progressivism.
I want to see some action. I’m tired of this political correct bull—-. I’ve had all of Harvard’s puppy mill Marxist/Leninist elitist I can stand, no more. Somebody better get off their a– and get something done.
We need a dam good General in charge. Any body come to mind?
Toma
Republicans always run on lower taxes. So they can keep doing that. It’s going to be very hard to run on less regulation this year, what with the recent financial debacle and the oil gusher in the Gulf. They can run against the stimulus in their bases, but not so muc hou tside of them, especially as the economy turns around. They can run against TARP in their bases as well, but not in more educated places. They still have the social issues, and the immigraion thing plays pretty much everywhere except Democratic strongholds, and the GOP can’t worry about winning thise right now. The only “scandals” they have against the Dems are pretty trivial, so I don’t see that going anywhere. The Republican brand is in the toilet.
The GOP is going to have to let each nominee run as their own unique candidate. Each running mostly on a combination of local issues and whatever national issues (abortion, gays, immigrants, flag-waving, bla bla bla) fit the particular demos of their area.
JMJ