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Winning for the sake of winning is an excellent short-term tactic, but a lousy long-term strategy. Just look at the consequences of the 2006 congressional elections, when the GOP lost control of both houses of Congress.

A Republican majority is only as useful as the policies that majority produces. When those policies look a lot like Democratic ones, the base rightly questions why it should keep Republicans in power. As the party gears up for elections in the fall, it ought to look closely at the losses suffered under a political strategy devoid of principle. Otherwise, it can look forward to a bad case of déjà vu.

- Pat Toomey, President of Club for Growth

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For this contest you get to make up your own answers!! That’s right…just pretend you’re a real life journalist and just make shit up. Post answers in the comments. They will be judged on creativity, plausibility and humor.

Question : What is President Bush saying?

Previous contests

Ahhhh crap….

…

….it’s a woot-off….and I had plans to be productive….so much for that.

This is absolutely hilarious!!

[H/T : Pat]

For whatever reason, the news certainly has been grim lately for Republicans. The NRCC has told House Republicans they are own their own this election. Polls have repeatedly indicated that the Republican party has lost the advantage on virtually every issue that matters to the American public. It’s a presidential election where our sitting President is very unpopular and our presidential candidate is just as unpopular with Republican, notably because he keeps grabbing every opportunity to stick it to conservatives.

Yes, suddenly the news is looking rather grim. And on of conservatism’s greater pontificators is warning us that we better shape up or face a dark future. Newt is right, of course, change is definitely needed. Most notably, and this is probably the only issue on which the Paulbots have a coherent point, Republicans have strayed greatly from their conservative roots, and it WILL cost them eventually….if it isn’t doing so already.

Newt very ably lays out the situation in case anyone is not seeing the road signs warning the bridge is most assuredly out. Republicans no longer have a real message. They no longer have a broad vision.

This is readily apparent to anyone that has received a fundraising call or mailer recently. It’s obvious in the punditry Republican activists have been offering. Essentially the message is “yeah we suck, but we’re better than the Democrats!!”. If that isn’t good enough for you, they’ll explain how horrible life would be if the other side wins.

Now nobody can really argue with that, but it’s not a winning message by any means. You can tell people how horrible the other option is, but until you give them a reason to accept your option, you’ve got nothing. So as long as you’re telling me why I shouldn’t vote for the Democrats, how about we also advance a coherent conservative message?? And that’s one we don’t have and nobody is talking about. And no Paulbots, your platform is not coherent….or at least it’s not realistic, and the black helicopters are kind of a disqualifier.

In his appeal, Newt attempts to offer some ideas for a new message to offer the American people. Unfortunately it’s a rather sub-standard list, especially considering it comes from the man that was primarily responsible for the Contract with America that was so successful years back.

But it is clear, Republicans need to redraft their message for the American people. We need to articulate what we’re about, not just what we’re against.

[Crossposted at True North]

Yesterday, the latest act in this two-ring circus, known as the Democrat presidential campaign, took place in which North Carolina and Indiana held their primaries.  And from the sounds of it, Operation Chaos was in full effect.  Rush played field marshall on his program and early reports is that Republicans were crossing over in droves to vote.  Although it’s questionable how much can be attributed to Limbaugh’s Operation Chaos because, as Allahpundit points out, many of the cross-over Republicans were voting for Clinton.

And I’m not sure that’s a bad thing….

Oh sure I initially agreed with Operation Chaos….drag out the process, let the Democrats destroy each other.  Salvage a Clinton candidacy if possible.  It sounded like a win-win situation.

But then reality set in.  If anything Obama has quite solidly cemented himself as the less threatening candidate.  Clinton has a political machine built up of such scale that it rivals most central governments.  She’s proven that she can take a political hit and roll with it.  She’s used to it, she’s mastered the art.  She has had plenty of experience doing it.  Plus her and McCain are damn near BFFs, and I have little confidence in McCain’s ability to go after Hillary on anything.

Obama on the other hand has definitely shown his inexperience.  He has demonstrated that he’s absolutely awful off-the-cuff.  He makes unprovoked guffaws any time he goes off script.  His wife is a arrogant and absolutely cluless shrieking harpy.  His associations with shady characters rival some mob bosses.  And he’s proven completely inept of capably handling scandals.  And his attempts to do so have tarnished any shimmer he might have had, and his promise of a new type of politics has devolved into the same only political mud-slinging.

I’m not convinced that the best strategic move for Republicans wouldn’t be to encourage an Obama endorsement.

While there is still something to be said for helping the Democrat selection last into June, I think the candidate we’d prefer McCain face in November might not just be Obama.

Wow, spam turned 30 on Saturday….30 years of pissing people off.

Although this might explain why most of my spam lately has been regarding colon cleansing.

Unbeliveable….a soldier in Afghanistan accidentally calls his parent’s house while he’s in the middle of a firefight.  Leaves a three minute message on their answering machine filled with gunfire, requests for ammo and a new barrel and then ends with a warning of an incoming RPG.

Fortunately, he wasn’t hurt, as his parents found out when they got in touch with him later on.

He’s still got a month left on his tour, but I can guarantee episodes like this aren’t making it any shorter for his family.

So it appears that Al Franken has gotten a little bored with his Senate campaign, and instead decided play “Let’s see how many ways a single candidate can completely fark up him campaign that doesn’t involve actually molesting a voter“. And it appears he has declared “All In” for that game. Indeed, recent polls indicate not only do a majority not support him, but a majority would really rather he dropped out of the race. Not exactly a platform of success.

However, because I’m a bitter cynical bastard I would like to remind the MN GOP of a couple things. Sen. Coleman may very well win his election. And barring a magical fairy sprinkling magical “anti-dumbass” dust all over Franken and removing his power of speech, Coleman may very well win by a large margin. But let’s remember why.

It’s not that Minnesota loves Coleman. It’s that Al Franken was…….well, he was Al Franken. In short, Franken is a complete imbecile and may have run one of the worst campaigns this side of Tony Zirkle. So after the election let’s not pretend this was some big endorsement of Coleman’s own less than stellar performance.

I would still suggest sending the talent scouts out to the farm clubs, because even the MN DFL is going to have a limited supply of complete asshats that are willing to run for national office. Next time it might be someone who pays their taxes.

Sometimes all it takes is a short conversation with a drunken patron of a small-time bar to put rather complicated situations into very revealing simplicity. For example, how does one break down the complexities that are the Democratic endorsement??

It’s a choice between a nut with two boobs, and a boob with two nuts.

It doesn’t matter how many policy positions, campaign speeches and PR stunts you take into account. it really does just come down to that.