I posted some congratulatory comments offered to our new president last week. Yesterday, I began looking at more critical reaction. That survey concludes today.
To be clear, the point is not to be crabby for the sake of being crabby. The fact is, 48 percent of the country voted for the other guy, and a goodly number of them will have real differences with Obama's Administration.
I figure if he can start talking about Executive Orders before Veteran's Day, we can start stiffening our necks.
Have a good one!
John Derbyshire of National Review Online admits being sour - What won this election was the packaging skills of David Axelrod, the swooning complicity of the media, the ruthless opportunism of Barack Obama, and the unprincipled thuggishness of his supporters. What lost this election was the cloth-eared cluelessness of George W. Bush, the timid squeamishness of John McCain, and the deep lack of interest in conservative principles among Republican primary voters.
Sour? You bet I’m sour. Where was conservatism in this election? Where was restraint in government? Where was national sovereignty? Where was liberty? Where was self-support? And where are those things now? Where are they headed this next four years? Down the toilet, that’s where. Pah!
David Kahane, by way of Kathryn Jean Lopez of NRO - We got this the old-fashioned way: we earned it. The other side took the fight to us, and we never took the fight to the other side, except coyly and obliquely. That's not a mistake we should make the next time. "Honorable campaigns" are for losers. Next time, call 'em as they really are, not as you wish to see 'em.
Where was Bush? Once again, and right to the bitter end, he let his passion for "loyalty" supersede what was strategically right for the party, not to mention what was best for the country. I think his reputation has nowhere to go but down; yes, he got one big thing right, but he got everything else wrong. Enough of this family in our country's politics!
Peter Kirsanow, also from NRO, and also the whole thing is worth reading - Obama will get the most lavish and extended honeymoon in history. Every time he walks to the podium without falling down will be trumpeted as the greatest accomplishment since MacArthur returned to the Philippines. It will be the natural tendency of Republicans to join in the praise, and worse, to try to be "bipartisan" when it comes to legislation that is manifestly bad for the country and abhorrent to conservative principles. This tendency will be magnified by the Republicans' fear that any opposition to Obama's policies will be portrayed as motivated by racism rather than principle.
Senator McCain is an American hero, a remarkable man. I can think of few I respect more. But he's likely to be the first to be leading the charge toward bipartisanship. This would be a mistake of galactic proportions. This must be resisted.
It's all well and good for Republicans to congratulate Obama today, and on Inauguration Day. The GOP shouldn't oppose merely for the sake of opposition. But if they were paying any attention to what Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Rangel, Schumer, etc, have been saying over the last year, they should realize that on the major issues of the day, liberals are determined to take the nation down a hard left path that will, in the words of Obama, "fundamentally transform" America.
Let the buyer beware.
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