Great Conservative Speeches #9 - Hannan

Continuing the countdown of Top 10 conservative speeches with #9 today.  Many people have seen British MP and European MEP Daniel Hannan's more famous speech to Gordon Brown, but this one has a more positive tone and therefore I think it is a more worthy speech.

Friday Musical Interlude - November 20, 2009

Today's Friday Musical Interlude is another dust collector from the late 70's. It's kitchy but catchy.

Ian Dury and the Blockheads: Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick.

Great Conservative Speeches #10 - Buckley

Counting down a list of the Top 10 conservative speeches, starting today at #10 with William F. Buckley in his famous debate with Reagan on the future of the Panama Canal.

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll

According to Rasmussen's Daily Presidential Tracking Poll, Barack Obama's Presidential Approval Index (those who strongly approve minus those who strongly oppose of the President's job) is at a staggering -14.  His overall approval is at 47%.

Despite that, and despite the fact there are more people who who oppose health care reform than support it, it still might just happen.  Go figure.

Obama's crystal ball is cracked

This morning the October inflation number came out. It's up 0.3%. Housing starts are also down 10%. And earlier today in Asia, the President announced that Gitmo would not be closing on time as per his schedule.

All three of these items were unexpected.

The question I have is this: if they can't predict one year or even for economic numbers one month ahead, why would anyone believe the health care cost forecasts they have stewed up, or even further out the need for cap and trade to prevent the planet from turning into a second sun?

Anyone?

And So It Begins - Rationing

 

Gateway Pundit has a great summary on the weird timing of the rationing of mammograms – according to a federal task force recommendation, saying women shouldn’t screen for breast cancer in their 40’s but rather start in their 50’s.

Oddly, as Gateway Pundit points out the U.S. breast cancer survival rate exceeds that of the socialized medicine of Great Britain.

Here’s an idea; how about a nice… wait that’s the last two posts.

Here’s an idea; how about playing up that story for all it’s worth because it telegraphs the future state of health care in America under the O (and that’s not a BINGO reference).

McCain camp: Palin account 'all fiction'

 

McCain camp: Palin account 'all fiction' - Andy Barr and Jonathan Martin - POLITICO.com

Hey, people who ran the campaign for the supposed polite elder statesman, here’s an idea; how about a simple ‘no comment’?  The McCain camp continues to get even the little relevance it still has wrong.  Way to go guys.  Now go away.

Regardless of what you might think of Palin, the McCain camp pooched his campaign royally, including the handling of Palin.  They should deal with it by shutting up and sucking it up for the Republican team.  But they continue to be self-serving, even though their time has passed.  It’s disgraceful.  Not Newsweek disgraceful, but still bad.

W.H. denies Drudge Report - prematurely

 

The White House had a case of premature denigration when it denied the Drudge Report story that they would have an Obama interview on Fox – it later turned out the story was true.

Hey, here’s an idea; how about a simple ‘no comment’?  The White House continues to get even the little things wrong.  Way to go guys.

Dr. Zero's Essential Fusion Reaction

Over at Hot Air today, Dr. Zero has a great article about the Essential Fusion of social conservatism and fiscal conservatism. Cue the applause. It’s not like I haven’t been arguing that point for some time now – conservatives and moderates, conservatives and Republicans, social conservatives and fiscal conservatives and national defense conservatives all have something in common, despite their differences. The issue is not supposed to be about Rush versus Powell, or Newt versus Hoffman. The real issue is about current conservatism versus invasive socialism. A united front is needed in the face of a common enemy.

An aside implied in Dr. Zero’s appraisal, is the idea of fighting liberal emotional fire with conservative emotional fire. He says don't use pie charts to make your points. Damn it though, the pie charts prove so much!

I get his point though. Repeating the phrase "proven to fail" ad nauseum, could be just as effective as the liberals’ mantra-chanting of "Bush lied, people died". Although I wonder how many people that lie actually converted, as opposed to just solidified in beliefs of diehard liberals. There's no way to tell. “Proven to fail” has truth on its side too. Supposed solutions that have proven to fail time and again, have been evident both here and abroad.

“Proven to fail” sounds catchy. It doesn't even need a pie chart. But as a fiscal conservative, I'm going to keep the chart in my back pocket in case someone asks.

To be honest, that's the kind of convert I want, not a Marc Antony* following mob of mindless drones who would rather munch popcorn and be seduced by a good speech than ask serious questions of the speaker. As a conservative, that's how we are wired.

*Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;

I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him;
The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones,
So let it be with Caesar ... The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answered it ...
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest,
(For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all; all honourable men)
Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral ...

But hey, that's just me. Rahm Emmanuel and Saul Alinsky get it, although they see those people as useful idiots who will vote with their emotions that can be easily manipulated. I'm a purist but I understand the need to get an emotional response from the listener some times. Perhaps these are such times.

Rush Limbaugh has often pointed out the flaws of feel-good-liberalisms and why it’s not a principle to be governed by. But he fails to move on to the next logical point in that line of thinking. Many people will always, only vote with their hearts and not their heads. Getting through to them is tough, and pie charts and logic make it harder, not easier. It’s a conservatives are from Mars, liberals are from Venus type problem. If you want to win over the unconvinced, you have to at least speak their language.

Let’s face it; the right of the blogosphere is full of wonks who can recite lines from a 1900 page bill. That fails to connect with most of the non-choir part of the right as much as the GOP party insiders who thrust Scozzafava upon NY23 in a smarter-than-thou fit-a-pique more attenuated to Democrat sensibilities than liberty-loving conservatives. And if we can’t convince the less attuned conservatives on a regular basis, how can we get moderates and nervous liberals to consider our side of the story?

That’s right – we’ve got to talk to their feelings. At least until we can start to get them asking the questions where we get to start showing our pie charts…

Programming Note - Assessing the Candidates

Two Weeks ago I had mentioned that I was going to do another candidate review this past week.  You may have noticed it didn't happen.  I haven't forgotten but given the soon to be spectacle around Palin's book tour, including Oprah, I've decided it would be smarter to hold of f for a bit.  The reason is that I've decided to try to compare the candidates against each other and the landscape could shift considerably this week.

As a result the Assessing the Candidates revisit will be delayed for at least one week from today in order to process the impacts sure to come this week.