BHO ran for President with no record to defend, could say whatever he wanted, and no one could successfully attack him. Much like a top draft pick coming into the NFL amidst praise for his college play. So many of these unproven, new millionaires collapse when the pressure's on, it's time to perform, and they're expected to justify the confidence placed in them.
Now that Obama has played the role of executive, he can be judged on his performance as an executive. The best case against him in 2012 will be his own promises of 2008. Even if he manages to do all of the things he promised, the question will be, "did those actions make things better or worse?" or, if you will, "are you better off now than you were four years ago?"
On the Republicans side, they must prove they're truly conservative. Conservatives don't lose because they're conservative but because of hypocrisy. If, in your campaign, you're pushing family values, you'd better not leave your wife and children at home to spend nights with your personal assistant. If you want the people to believe you're fiscally conservative then don't skyrocket our deficit and debt. If you're opposed to welfare then don't give handouts to corporations (and quit with the bailouts already). If you are opposed to abortion-on-demand, then we'd expect your pregnant teenage daughter to keep her baby and be responsible for caring for him/her (oh, wait, I guess Palin scored a point on that one or at least came out even - depending on how you view free condoms for teens).
Hypocrisy seems to hit conservatives harder than liberals because conservatism pushes a higher standard of individual responsibility and decency compared to the liberals' live-and-let-live/do-whatcha-like mentality. Not convinced? Then tell me why the liberal reps who've been exposed for not paying their share of the taxes they impose on the rest of us have essentially skated?
Liberals are adventurous risk-takers while conservatives are reserved, serious, strict, judgmental, self-righteous, and boring pessimists. Do I believe that? No. My point is that when a liberal screws up it isn't as big a news item as when a conservative does because liberals, by definition, are in favor of maximum personal freedom and are thus more likely to exhibit unrestrained, bad behavior. I believe Larry Flynt provided us a valuable service by hunting for the sexual misconduct of politicians - unfortunately, he appeared to be after only conservatives because they claim to have higher moral standards. Of course, there are exceptions, like Spitzer, but, overall, liberals are given more rope.
Is conservatism dead? Nope. Is the Republican party finished? Our Presidential Election history doesn't show that (look at what happened to one-term Jimmy Carter and consider that Obama is just his re-tread). New blood is needed that that does more than just talk like a conservative. I have no clue whom that will be but they have another year or so to make a
How the GOP Can Rise Again
There's no need to abandon basic Republican principles. Instead, just cool the scorched-earth rhetoric and focus on reclaiming the educated middle class.
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A generation ago, the great majority of the most educated Americans voted Republican. The elder George Bush, for instance, defeated Michael Dukakis among college graduates by 25 points. But that advantage has been eroding, and last year Barack Obama became the first Democrat since Lyndon Johnson to win a majority of American voters with four years of higher education.
This is no small bloc, especially within white America, where Republicans do best. Almost one third of white Americans hold a college degree, up from one fifth in 1990. Republicans cannot win without this growing group. To recover them, we need to do four things:
1. We must develop economic policies that are more relevant to today's middle class. Adjusting for inflation, college graduates earned less in 2006 than they did in 2000. The culprit: rising health-care costs. Until Republicans can offer hope on this issue, our economic message will bypass those whom it would otherwise most benefit. Most Americans do not want government-provided health care. They could, however, be receptive to a market-oriented system—if we can intensify competition between private providers to slow the rise in health-care costs.
2. Republicans need to modulate our social and cultural message. Not jettison. Not reverse. Modulate. For example: we are a pro-life party, but every Republican platform since 1980 has gone much further, calling for a federal constitutional amendment to ban all abortions in all states under almost all circumstances. We don't mean it. We don't act on it. Yet we keep saying it.
That's just one way in which we're confusing voters. We don't intend to police every single one of the millions of deathbeds in America, either. So why did we obsess over Terri Schiavo? We don't believe in sectarianism, yet some candidates in 2008 seemed to cross that line. One explicitly campaigned as a "Christian leader." This is self-destructive in a country where the fastest-growing religion is no religion at all.
Meanwhile, some moderate GOP stances go unpublicized. George W. Bush allowed private-sector and university stem-cell research to proceed unregulated. How will voters know that, unless we forcefully remind them?
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