I Hope You're Happy

Democratic Presidential politics

1.    The Audacity of Hope beats the Politics of paranoia and division
2.    Every campaign must one day come to an end in the face of reality. Even Hillary’s.
3.    Politics is more than a name (Clinton, Kennedy).
4.    The expressed desire to castrate somebody reflects rather poorly when that person is the fulfillment of your life’s mission. And you want to get your son into his vacated Senate seat.
5.    Dennis Kucinich is a lucky man.
6.    When in the thick of it, if you’re a woman, showing stress and shedding tears makes you more human, if you’re a man it means you’re weak.
7.    In political poker, gender and race are essentially equal hands, and only serves to divide the pot.

Republican Presidential Politics

8.    Conservatives are as conservatives admonish.
9.    Divide and conquer is not a good strategy for the political battlefield.
10.    Fear leads to the dark side.
11.    Some people believe everything you tell them. Those people voted for Sarah Palin and that lecherous old guy that followed her around.
12.    Lecherous is a word that isn’t used enough anymore.
13.    A pitbull’s bite is a good deterrent to voters.
14.    The only thing that is un-American is believing an opposing viewpoint is un-American.
15.    When using Yahoo for professional off the record email, make sure your password is not public knowledge.
16.    When running on a cleaning up corruption platform, it helps to not be corrupt yourself (this is for Palin, but repeats for Blagojevich).
17.    There really should be a separation between personal and politics.
18.    Being a political sideshow is not good for advertising your business, especially if you’re a plumber.
19.    Sometimes being a plumber is more interesting than being a presidential candidate.
20.    When you’re a presidential candidate, make sure your running mate and mascots are not more entertaining than you are.
21.    When suspending your campaign, go directly to Washington D.C., do not make a stop for an interview, and mosey into town a day late and without a plan, do not pass go, do not collect $200.
22.    Apparently, one of the primary means of gaining foreign policy experience is proximity.
23.    In choosing a vice presidential running mate, choosing an unknown quantity means you’re getting an unknown quantity.
24.    It takes more than a fresh coat of lipstick to make a pitbull or a pig look intelligent.
25.    When choosing a running mate to parrot talking points, sometimes choosing a parrot would be more effective.
26.    Guilt by association is hard to make stick, and not a valid campaign strategy.
27.    You can neither put lipstick on a pig, nor designer labels on an Alaskan governor
28.    The person leading us into our science fiction future should be able to use email
29.    I never want to hear the word “maverick” again
30.    knowing how many houses you have is a pretty important piece of information
31.    You can’t see Russia from Wasilla. Not even with really good binoculars.
32.    Republican women appear to be either hausfraus or Nazi Dominatrixes.

Legislative Branch

33.    No matter what bad things you say about the Democrats, if you smile nicely and plead a little they’ll let you back into the club.
34.    Florida’s 16th District has really bad cooties
35.    According to Michele Bachmann, we don’t have to worry about the environment because Jesus saved us.
36.    The investigation into anti-American politicians should start in Minnesota’s 6th district

Media

37.    You are what you eat applies equally to eaters and FoxNews Viewers.
38.    Ann Coulter is a hate crime
39.    Chuck Norris may have a roundhouse kick that can deflect asteroids, but he’d never win a political debate.
40.    The media sucks at the teat more than bites the hand that feeds. So many opportunities for hard follow-up questions lost.
41.    Watching Fox News on a Democratic victory night is the best show in town.
42.    It is increasingly difficult to get away with lies due to the internet and bloggers. This is the up side of the Schwartz.
43.    The media is going vigilante with blogs. This is the downside of the Schwartz.
44.    Even though the Huffington Post doesn’t pay its contributors, it still plagiarizes.
45.    Thanks to in-depth reporting that holds itself to high standards, we now know exactly what it looks like when you put lipstick on a pig.

General elections

46.    The Bradley effect no longer exists, if it ever did.
47.    It is entirely possible that people just didn’t like Bradley.
48.    Religion is beginning to be a political faultline
49.    When running for political office, don’t piss off David Letterman.

Gubernatorial Politics

50.    The Free market value of a Senate seat in Illinois will likely be measured in time, not dollars.
51.    When running on a cleaning up corruption platform, it helps to not be corrupt yourself, Blago.
52.    When choosing a governor in Illinois, the lesser of two evils is still pretty evil.
53.    It’s good to be the king, not so much to be Elliot Spitzer.
54.    Getting your ex brother in law fired is more trouble than it is worth.
55.    Congrats to the 48 other governors who didn’t make a spectacle of themselves.
56.    Roland Burris is now Rod Blagojevich’s middle finger.

Continuing stories

57.    What happens in an airport bathroom in Minnesota does not stay in an airport bathroom in Minnesota, and the court won’t let you take it back either.

Economy

58.    The Fundamentals of our economy are not strong
59.    When Congress asks you for a plan before they give you bailout money, have a plan ready to go.
60.    Free Market Libertarians are wrong.
61.    The Market doesn’t know what’s best for it.
62.    If the returns on investment are too good to be true, they probably are.
63.    Ponzi is more than a fun word to say.
64.    Madoff is a name “Made Off” is a verb phrase that should be preceded by “almost”

Misc

65.    Chinese democracy is possible, but it will take far too long, cost far too much, and ultimately be disappointing.
66.    When faced with the choice of maybe losing a Senate seat to the Republicans or leaving the choice in the hands of a corrupt governor, Illinois Democrats are just as timid as their Senate Big Brothers.
67.    There is one thing that we can all agree the Bush Administration did right: the Anti-Telemarketer no-call list.
68.    Say good bye to the two worst presidents we’ve ever had, Cheney and What’s his name.

The Republican reaction to the election so far has been widely varied, ranging from stick to your guns to get your guns and head to the hills. The same name-calling that plagued the election continues to happen in op-eds and message boards, and the whole situation just reflects poorly on all involved. I’m going to give you some advice that won’t even sting to help us all get through this. I promise none of the bitterness and recriminations of the political season. This is positive stuff for the conservative. I focus mostly on the economic and Libertarian sides of things. On ideological moral issues, you’re on your own.

First, realize that this country is not going to end. America will not fall, the government will not topple, the terrorists will not win. The very underpinnings of Democracy will not crumble. America moves on regardless of who is in power.

Remember that you aren’t the only voice in this nation. Multiplicity of voice is what makes our nation great. Unilateralization of voice makes a country a totalitarian dictatorship. When our national voices become one national voice is the point where I really begin to worry.

Realize that everybody who isn’t with you isn’t against you. The two parties aren’t enemies, and everybody in government is doing what they think is best for the nation regardless of whether the current majority party is in opposition to somebody else’s idea of what is best. I’ve said it before, the only person who is un-American is the one calling their opponent un-American.

Recognize that everything is cyclical. There will come times to regulate, and times to deregulate. There will be times of growth, and times of recession. There will be times of Republican leadership, and times of Democrat. The next wave of Republicans will be different certainly than the current administration, and the refinement of leadership and issues that return Republicans to power will be a matter of choosing the right direction for the country, just as the issues that returned the Democrats to power are the right issues for this point in America’s direction.

The middle class and lower classes matter. America prospers when the Middle class prospers. A friend’s parents were on a cruise recently that happened to feature some conservative groups, and they specifically said that the middle class and poor don’t matter. I see the income brackets as something like a game of Jenga. The thinner the middle is, the less stable the top is. When you pull the middle completely out, the top falls over.

You should continue to participate. Refusal to voice your opinion in proper forums simply means your voice doesn’t get heard. I’m not talking about internet forums that are read only by other Republicans which stew into ever more conservative extremes. Proper forums include your local representative regardless of what party they may be, your state’s Senators, whatever party they may be, your state legislators, your governor, etc. If you are Republican, and your representative is Democrat, they are still your representative, and if you dislike their votes, let them know now, and not in the next election cycle.  This will take an open mind to do the first few times. We have a mindset that says that the other side is THE OTHER SIDE, and it simply isn’t so cut and dry as this.

Remember that the core Republican small government values are absolutely valid in many respects, and work well in opposition to a period that looks like we’re going to get more government involvement in the economic affairs of the nation. Any side, when it comes into power can get overzealous. We need a voice for rational small government sense to temper any suggested law that may overreach common sense. One of the benefits of this system we have is that even the minority opinion gets heard.

Realize that limited government is not small government, and the Republican ideal is limited government, not small government. I am personally a realist, and I think a government should not be large, and not be small, but it should be effective. Under Bush, I don’t think it has been. The evidence of Katrina, our failure of foresight to secure Iraq after invasion which has allowed this war to drag out far too long, our failure to capture Bin Laden, our current financial crisis, the bubble in the cost of oil, the rising national budget deficit, the falling value of the dollar are just a few examples of this. To put a more concise phrasing to my point, I believe that government should be large enough to be effective, and no larger. This does not mean I oppose national health care or the current bailout (it isn’t socialism by any means, get over that one while you’re at it), or do not support more retirement support for manufacturing jobs to free that sector to be more competitive. I think this would be a way to make the government and nation more effective. If you disagree, write me with specific reasons, and send it to your representatives in government. They want to hear it, trust me.

Realize that one of the reasons our industries are suffering is because our government is much less socialist than other nations. Our libertarian miniscule governmental ideals stacks the deck against us in the world economy. If we had nationalized health care like every other industrialized nation, a significant economic burden would be lifted from our major manufacturing industries of aerospace, energy and automotive manufacturing. If we had stronger governmental retirement benefits, these industries would be further unencumbered. We’d close the technology gap fast, and be a player again.<br>
Be open to the thought that a little regulation is not a bad thing. I believe the markets are melting down in part due to too little regulation, and in part due to a lack of personal responsibility in making lending choices. I think we are going into a period of heavier regulation. The flip side of this is that too much regulation can cripple growth, and limit the tools we have to create new markets and opportunities. The trick is to find the right balance that protects us from times like this. We absolutely need a rational voice to prevent overregulation. Feel free to make that voice heard. I invite it. If you see a piece of legislation coming through that you think limits the markets too much, write your representatives, write me. I’ll look at it, and if I agree, try to increase the exposure of the issue. Make a logical rational argument, supported by facts.

Drop the socialist rhetoric. It doesn’t hold truth. I have seen a number of people backtracking because they can’t make the socialist label stick very well to the Democrats, and now call it “a form of socialism”. Get over it. It’s not.

And finally, drop Wright, Ayers, ACORN, and all of the other untruths you’ve been spreading. These stories are shameful enough during an election, but are also somewhat to be expected. Now you’re just being bad losers.

See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?

I don’t remember where I found the original links, but I have a whole browser full of tabs of conservative blog reactions to the elections. It’s time for some rapid fire Johnny responses.
Michelle Malkin leads off a post called “Gird Your Loins, Conservatives” with this statement:

“I’m getting a lot of moan-y, sad-face “What do we do now, Michelle?” e-mails.”

Well, I’ll give you a hint, and it involves thinking for yourself for a change. Why do you have to turn to Michelle for guidance, or Rush, or Bill O’ or Ann or any of them. Obama hasn’t even taken office yet, and you’ve already decided this is going to be the worst four years of your life. How about waiting until a few months in, the famous hundred days mark or yes, even a year to give the new president and congress a chance to prove their worth. There’s a brain under that cranium up there, maybe you should take the opportunity to exercise it.

She goes on:

“What do we do now? We do what we’ve always done.

We stand up for our principles, as we always have[…]

We do not apologize for our beliefs. We do not re-brand them, re-form them, or relinquish them. We defend them.

We pay respect to the office of the presidency. We count our blessings and recommit ourselves to our constitutional republic.

We gird our loins, to borrow a phrase from our Vice President-elect.

We lock and load our ideological ammunition.

We fight.”

You almost had it. Paying respect usually means not picking a fight the day after the election. Here we have a President elect whose platform has been inclusion and finding the right path, and you want to dig trenches. That worked out really well in WWI.

She goes on to marching orders.

“First assignment for fiscal conservatives in Washington:

1) Oppose the Democrats’ next stimulus boondoggle.
[The bill isn’t even written yet and you’re mobilizing against it?]
2) Oppose Obama’s windfall profits tax proposal.
3) Oppose new bailouts for states deep in debt.
[You mean like the United States?]
4) Oppose new foreclosure prevention measures that will simply provide perverse incentives for borrowers to walk away and delay a needed market correction.
[because it would really suck if people stayed in their homes if they could pay for them with a more fair loan]
5) No more federal loan guarantees for corporations

I’m sorry, but the conservative agenda is not working. This is why we have voted it out of power. Don’t get me wrong here, I like small governments, but even more I like effective governments. Under Bush it was neither.

But there’s a lot to go on to, let’s not malinger on Michelle.
Let’s go to Redstate and their post “The After. The Before. The Future, Present and Past.”
We start off good, with a suggestion to take a day of rest, we’ve won some, lost some, a lot of the good clichés. Then we get to this:

“RedState stands at the front lines in the fight against the left. We fight hard here. We are not always meant to win. This is a never ending war. Often we view the fight for the White House as the war, but it is just one battle along the way. The war in politics between left and right does not end.”

Why is it always war? Why do we always have to fight against our own countrymen? We’re not, contrary to what Michele Bachmann might think, un-American. Maybe we could agree not on fiscal conservatism, but fiscal responsibility. I’m not sure we’ve ever had that, but we keep talking about it. We’ll never pass a line item veto so long as one party is looking to the next few years and fear that they will never get an earmark through, but we always bitch and moan about earmark spending. It might be a nice compromise to make right now as we go through a financial crisis. On this end, I’ve got news for you, earmarks are a pretty small portion of federal spending. It’s like complaining about the dripping pipe when you’re looking at a water main break. Can’t we agree to just get this done? It might be a nice start.
But let’s move on again. This time, we’re on to another Redstate blog post by Neil Stevens Here
One good statement is this one:

Point two: This isn’t the end of America.

Thank you for saying this, because this is what the left said when Bush was elected to his second term. And his first. Parties ebb and flow. It is the nature of politics. A free thinker realizes that there are times where the Republicans are good for America, and times when the Democrats are when it comes to certain issues. When we start getting into issues like abortion or gay rights, that’s a different story. Let’s face it, there are times when a government with more oversight is a good thing, and that time would have been about four years ago. There are other times when less oversight is good, times when the economy is growing at a healthy but not overzealous rate. As a free thinker, my biggest challenge is to foresee when each might be better. Wall Street has bears and bulls, and each has their right time. Let’s see how Neil follows this up.

Our values are more resilient than Obama is strong. Our civil institutions are stronger than Obama is socialist. Our nation is greater than any one man, including the President. We will endure anything that happens under his Presidency.

Ooh. Sorry, thanks for playing. Yeah, you missed it by ………………………………. this much. There you go dividing again. Why is it when a Republican is elected, Democrats say we’ll work with him, and when a Democrat is elected, Republicans draw a line in the sand and spit tobacco juice across it?

Let’s move on to Moonbattery with the article, “Let the Backlash Begin.”

Congratulations, moonbats. You finally have your revenge for being forced to look at all those flags after 9/11. This is a day of celebration for everyone hostile to America and the principles of individual liberty for which it stands. Enjoy it while you can.
There are people lowdown enough to know in advance who and what was elected yesterday, and to have voted for the Moonbat Messiah anyway. What they have done to this country is beyond forgiveness.
But an ultra-radical leftist like Obama could not be elected in a center-right country, or even a center-left country, without a great deal of deception. Thanks to a radicalized liberal media willing to sacrifice its own long-term credibility to put a leftist in power, Obama was never publicly vetted. Moderates did not vote for a real person, but for a two-dimensional phantom temporarily conjured into being by hype.
The opposition made the swindle easy to pull off. After eight years of a lousy incumbent, it presented a still lousier replacement, an inarticulate, uninspiring centrist universally reviled by the conservative base. Now the Republican Party knows it must either purge itself of RINO mediocrities like Bush and McCain or go the way of the Whigs.
Bush’s subpar performance will soon fade from memory, as Obama’s malignant collectivist ideology and lack of qualifications become impossible for the media to hide. One way or another, the full extent of his radical past and associations will become public knowledge. As promised by Plugs Biden, Obama will be tested, and he isn’t likely to pass.
We’ve had awful leaders before. New York’s atrocious affirmative action mayor, David Dinkins, gave way to Rudy Giuliani. Jimmy Carter gave way to the only great president of our lifetimes, Ronald Reagan. America will turn toward greatness again, once it realizes it has been tricked into temporarily embracing disgrace and decline.

Woah, did I get any bullshit on me? It was flinging pretty hard and heavy there. This guy has some issues, first is prejudice, and not the skin color kind (though I’m guessing there’s some of that, too). First, you’ve not only judged him before a day into his presidency, but you’ve executed him too. Second, every ad on this site is an ad for fringe quack beliefs that should give some clues as to the character of the blogger. Third, I lived through the Reagan recession. I haven’t forgotten Reaganomics. It doesn’t work. Trickle down economics feels like getting pissed on economics. I’d rather sit through one of his movies than another minute of a Reagan-esque President. He may have been great for the reinstatement of conservative morals (morals are a point of view, so I won’t argue right or wrong in this article), but he ushered in a generation of very loose fiscal and economic morals that started with Charlie Keating and continues to the present crisis.

Let’s move on to NRO. This little snippet by Andy McCarthy, called “Tenured Radicals Coming Home to Roost?”

Preliminary indications are that the youth vote (ages 18-29) was way up:  an increase of somewhere over 2.2 million (maybe way over) from 2004 (a year in which it was very high), and as much as 13% over 2000.  The Left’s dominance of the academy is now having a material impact on electoral politics.  As we think about the future of conservatism, we ignore that at our peril.

Sure blame education. Blame intelligence. It’s the smart ones that did us in. Doesn’t that mean only stupid people vote Republican? Now I know why they hate to fund education.

Let’s go to Blackfive, and this article “Back in the USSA”

“America’s sheep have spoken and elevated one of their own to the Presidency. Uber Sheep (no offense UP) Obama will now lead the flock from the front. The United States of Socialist America has been established and I eagerly await the summons to the Michelle Malkin Internment and Re-Education camps. The left now is the ruling class with a landslide victory and a mandate for The Obama to CHANGE America to the PC wonderland the Bush Crime Family has kept it from becoming.

The CHANGE Obama and his legions of adorers want to enact is unprcedented in US history and the country they want to make would be unrecognizable to the Founders. I refuse to submit. I refuse to HOPE or CHANGE. I refuse to surrender. I refuse to STFU!!!!!!

The Obama in Chief is not a fan of our President Elect and so he will sound the charge. 1 20 09, I have seen it on dozens of bumper stickers of left wing butt heads looking forward to W’s departure. Well I can’t say I’ll miss him much either, but let’s take the day away from them. Screw the coronation and start of the Obamanation. 1 20 09, the day we begin the fight to stop the left from telling the rest of us how to live our lives and pussifying American society. I went with Chuck Z today to his favorite local gun shop and where last week there were dozens of AK and variants for sale, today there were half as many and a line to buy.

There is no point in sniveling; the Obama won fair and square. What we need to do now is pull America’s head out of it’s ass before these bastards do too much damage. Revolution Calling!”

Wow, first, “sheep” is what you call people when you are following a different shepherd. We get just about everything in this one, from his insistence of calling Barack “the Obama” (read: that one, those people, etc. the same old division lines), to socialist (I wonder if he’s actually read anything on socialism instead of just burned the books), he brings up the founders, as if they wanted a coot like this voting, we’ve got name calling, Obamanation, guns, and a call to revolution. He calls us sheep? I just got bingo on my Republican buzzword card, and I didn’t even use the free spot in the middle. Well, comrade, as they said in their cries to revolution in 1917, “Bread! We want bread!”

On to V the K’s blog post “Caption this” (Sorry, lost the link)

We first get his with this picture:

[Did I mention rule #41 of debating modern politics: first person to make a comparison to Nazis loses?]

“First of all, don’t despair too much. John McCain was not that much of a prize. Do you really honestly believe his presidency was going to resemble his one year of center-right campaigning more than his 20+ years of center-left senatoring? Doubtful. We may have gotten another couple of Souters on the Supreme Court instead of another couple of Ginsburgs. That’s about all we would have gotten out of Maverick McAmnesty. That and four years of captions about dropping napalm on “gooks” and kids being chased off the White House lawn.

If only one good thing has come from this election, it’s that it is crystal clear who the enemy is. We don’t have to compromise any more. We’re liberated from having to back mushy moderates just because if the alternative gets power, it would be worse. Well, now the worse alternative is in power, and we have nothing to lose.

Americans have elected bad presidents before. We elected James Buchanan. We elected Woodrow Wilson. We even somehow elected Jimmy Carter. Americans get irrational and make stupid decisions sometimes, but somehow, we pull through. Obama will not be a good president. In the most likely scenarios, Chairman O’s tenure is likely to be sub-Carter in its results. The result of his policies will be a recession deeper and more prolonged that Jimmy Carter’s. And weakness abroad will lead only to humiliation at home. The Democrats can only avoid this fate by governing moderately and not over-reaching, and it is not in their character to do either.

Plus, there will be corruption. Oh boy, will there ever be corruption. The One rode into office on a wave of voter fraud and illegal campaign contributions, and he’s not going to change his stripes once in office. The One has always surrounded himself with the worst sorts of political sewer trout like Tony Rezko, Frank Marshall and Jim Johnson. The greed of his associates will explode exponentially with the power of the presidency, and the stench will be too hard for even the media to hide.

And I’ll be here to make fun of The One and his incompetence, his idiocy, his corruption, for as long as is necessary.”

Wow, 12 hours later, the next four years are tried, already, battle lines are drawn, and bonus name calling. Then we have him accusing the Democrats of being corrupt, especially in comparison to that Paragon of Morals the Bush Administration. Apparently Obama is more corrupt than anything, ever, even though he doesn’t have any Ted Stevens convictions, any investigations, and never lied to a nation to start an endless war in search of oil profits and money for Cheney’s buddies.

Okay, that’s all that I can take, I’m calling it a night. What do I learn from this? We really need to reach out to any conservative we can find, and ask them to not judge until there are actual results, or at the very least, the drapes that we measured four weeks ago are installed in the White House. We have a great opportunity here to bridge the gap and build on this victory. It is a shame that we can’t open our minds to allow the future take shape before it is condemned.

McCain said he wouldn’t go after Wright in Pennsylvania, the same low-lifes that brought out the Nazi card. Apparently the rest of the Republican party decided to follow his wishes, at least until the day before the election. Looks like they’re going all Mavericky on McCain. From the Boston Globe.

Here’s the link: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/11/04/ad_blitz_links_obama_wright/

Here’s the key bits of the story:

Pennsylvania Republicans and an independent group called the National Republican Trust have blitzed the television airwaves in recent days with ads that link Barack Obama with his controversial former pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., in a last-minute effort to turn voters against the Democratic presidential nominee.

Both ads show Wright making inflammatory statements such as “Not God bless America, God damn America!” and calling the country the “US of KKKA.” Obama was once close to Wright, considering him a spiritual mentor and the man who brought him to embrace Christianity, but Obama broke off the relationship in April after Wright continued making controversial statements. Obama condemned Wright’s words as “appalling.”

[...]

But Porritt said McCain would not try to stop the Pennsylvania GOP and the National Republican Trust political action committee from airing the Wright ads, saying McCain “is not going to be the traffic cop for every independent organization, state party, or state-level candidate that chooses to use these in advertising.”

The National Republican Trust has made enormous advertising buys to put the ad on several national television networks in the final days of the campaign. The group spent $1.2 million on Thursday and $2.5 million more on Friday.

Desperation brings out some interesting character traits, doesn’t it?

Isn’t voter suppression UnAmerican? I guess not for Republicans. Here is an image and transcript of this flier.

Due to the larger than expected voter turnout in this years [sic] electoral process, An [sic] emergency session of the General Assembly has adopted the following emergency regulations to ease the load on local electorial [sic] precincts and ensure a fair electorial [sic] process.

All Democratic party supporters and independent voters supporting Democratic candidates shall vote on November 5th as adopted by emergency regulation of the Virginia General Assembly.

All Republican party supporters and independent voters supporting Republican candidates shall vote on November 4th as precribed [sic] by law.

We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause but felt this was the only way to ensure fairness to the complete electorial [sic] process.