This aint Reagan and it’s not 1986. Most people despise Bush and everything assoicated with him. The word "stench" seems to fit.

"...as Reagan understood." How can someone with Alzheimers really understand anything? He obviously didn’t understand what was going on around him during Iran-contra. Most people liked Reagan personally, but understood that he was a simpleton.

We who are not afraid have to come to terms with two facts: This election will probably be worse than 1986. Not only is it the off-year election in the president’s second term, all the polls show too many people who see nothing but pointless quagmire in Iraq. And, of course, the president (unlike Reagan) is not at all popular personally now. But the "negative landslide" won’t have any kind of significance as a realignment, as long as the Republicans field a fairly astute and principled candidate in 2008.

A simpleton...who changed the world. And he kicked Dimocrat butt...I wonder what that says about the liberals. They couldn’t even beat a (supposed) simpleton.

But there is one major difference between today and 1986. The GOP must behave as conservatives, not as go-along-and-get-along big-government-let’s-stay-in-power politicos. They have lost their inspiration as true conservatives, and this is why they are about to take a real beating. Unfortunately, all of us will pay, not just the Rockefeller wing of the GOP.

Just keep on smokin’ that weed, Tom, while our side racks up the long-term victories.

I’m surprised to hear that the old canard about Reagan as "amiable dunce" is still around, given the release of so many of his presidential papers, which suggest quite the contrary. The liberal historian Douglas Brinkley is about to release his edited collection of Reagan’s diaries, and these will no doubt put another nail in the coffin of that myth.

" Unfortunately, all of us will pay, not just the Rockefeller wing of the GOP. "

Nah. The upside (a house locked with a senate and a president who finds his veto pen) outweighs any downside. Here’s to return of something that resembles "conservative" governance. Conservatives stay home 2006!!!

Certainly 1987-88, Reagan’s last two years, were not as disastrous as they could have been with a Democratic Congress. But let’s remember, Anthony Kennedy is an indirect (but clear) result of the 1986 election, which directly resulted in the defeat of the Bork nomination. We’re still paying for that defeat today, with an often non-constitutionalist Supreme Court.

Lose and laugh, as Jeffrey Lord recommends? The hell with that.

"Be not afraid" to fight!

But the "negative landslide" won’t have any kind of significance as a realignment, as long as the Republicans field a fairly astute and principled candidate in 2008.

Oh yes, Peter, and who might that be? Who is our astute and principled candidate waiting in the wings? I surely do hope he’s back there somewhere and doing something at a grassroots level, building support in some imaginary political green room, that I am merely not astute enough to have noticed yet. He is amazingly articulate on conservative principles, too. Right? He speaks and everyone listens,
again and again restating his conservative principles but he just has not spoken loudly, yet.

A bad election now is a chance for George Bush to look much better at the end of his presidency. Let’s say for conservatism in general to look much better, too. That would be nice, although to be really good, that will probably have to be bruising for the country. Ouch. There might be a Supreme Court seat to fill, and that ought to be fun, too, with a Democratic Congress elected on the basis of "Bush is always wrong." Then there is the war. For Democrats to make this into Viet Nam again, as they already insist it is, is a very ugly thought. Will they do that to our troops and to the people of Iraq? I just wish the Republicans had done what they said they would do and that they had even seemed to believe their own rhetoric over the last few years.

I can hope and expect that the Democrats will spend the next two years making ANY Republican candidate for the 2008 election look good. I also want to be able to hope that the candidate in "08 will be more than just a relatively good-looking anybody. Peter’s astute and principled candidate is just who I had in mind. Now, who was that, again?

What’s That Smell? Hayward and His Defeatist Beltway Buddies Stinking Up the Joint. Heard the latest polling news? They say Bush Sucks, and Moser Agrees. No right-wing intellectual cheering here, we’re fully prepared for a Grand Old Party Defeat!

I say, let’s rename this joint: Left Turn Ahead!

Hey, let’s do it for Paul! Let’s do it for Paul! Let’s do it for Paul!

gag me, man...

We shall see. Some here seem to be incapable of facing up to the truth. Just look at your own state of Ohio. Blackwell is already down for the count and DeWine is a lost cause. That’s in Ohio, for heaven’s sake. Unless something crazy happens in the next 3 weeks, the party’s over.

As far as Reagan’s mental acuity, I and many others remember all too well what we saw for 8 years.

Steve Hayward: no weed here. Lay off the donuts and loose some weight, pal. Like most repubs, you’ve gotten squishy soft and complacent.

Kate: Barring something unforseen, McCain will be the GOP nominee in 08. The party of Dobson, Robertson, Jones, Haggard, et.al. had their chance.

The most inaccurate prediction of the political picture I’ve heard yet Tom. Blackwell is in serious trouble, but DeWine is anything but a lost cause. And as for McCain, while perhaps the general favorite nationally, he still has to get through a conservative base in the primary. Your "barring something unforseen" has over a year to maintain itself; that always happens in politics...right?

Donuts are good, but stuffed mushroom burgers are better, especially when accompanied with a good beer and a cigar for later. Keep your all-naturale blended vegetable cough syrup at home and protein biscuits at home. Their certainly not worth wasting pride on.

Fred:

Are you, in fact, referring to the famous stuffed burgers of Walter’s in Claremont? I have an appointment to chow down on one Saturday, October 28, at about 12:30 or so. Come by if you can!

Let’s hope that most Dims are mean-spirited scumbags like Tom Pain. The more they act like vindictive jerks, the faster we’ll make a comeback.

And I’d like to remind Tommy the Troll of something very important: We are conservatives...we play great defense. If the Dims should be lucky enough to take both houses and also the POTUS, they will find their offense no better than ours...probably a heckuva lot worse. We’ll find another Bob Dole and Newt Gingrinch, and the Dims will be toast.

Heard the latest polling news? They say Bush Sucks, and Moser Agrees. No right-wing intellectual cheering here, we’re fully prepared for a Grand Old Party Defeat!

I wonder what exactly "Publius" and others around here expect us to do. Applaud Allen for his "macaca" remark? Claim that people shouldn’t care about the Abramoff scandal? I get the distinct impression that if Mark Foley hadn’t resigned a few weeks ago there would be pressure on us to endorse him, just for the sake of maintaining the GOP’s majority in the House!

For the record, I plan on voting for both Blackwell and DeWine; the former because I agree with him, the latter because I’m frightened by Sherrod Brown. But if I lived in Virginia I’d be voting for Webb, just as if I lived in Connecticut I’d be casting my vote for Lieberman.

I wonder what exactly "Publius" and others around here expect us to do. Applaud Allen for his "macaca" remark? ... if I lived in Virginia I’d be voting for Webb.

Um, I guess you are prepared to make an intellectual case for Allen’s obviously deep-seated racism, eh? Please do, Mr. Moser, and maybe you could hurry to publish it right here at NLT before election day. I look forward to reading it. Thanks.

Come on, now. John M has every right to be at least dismayed at how poorly some Republicans (such as Allen) have campaigned. If I were in Virginia, I’d vote for Allen because the organization of the Senate might turn on his victory. But I’m not going to say I’d be confident that I was actually voting for the better man. I hope the Republicans win them all, or almost all, and will do what I can to help. Nevertheless, there’s some truth to P.J. O’Rourke’s complaint that many of them, at least, have stunk up the place this year.

Well, anyone who has actually read Webb’s book on the Scotch-Irish would know that he is at least as unreconstructed as Allen. And it surpassed my understanding why Webb would let the Iraqi war overturn all his previous political sentiments. The boy campaigned for many, many Republicans, but now we’re expected to believe he’s a Democrat. There is something deeply wrong here...did the Cong put the zap on his head (like McCain)?

Or perhaps it’s just that the Bush’s have this weird ability to turn otherwise passable conservatives into lethal, pitiless enemies (e.g., Ross Perot). Methinks its time for a new legacy in the GOP. Does Tancredo have sons?

if I lived in Virginia I’d be voting for Webb

Uh J.M.:

You may want to read this:

James Webb Writes About Incest and Pedophilia

Webb is at least as creepy as Foley.

Another scholarly citation from "legal Scholar" Guido. You can always tell when cowards get scared by how desparate they become.

Brain-dead Daino tells the world: "We’ll find another Bob Dole and Newt Gingrinch, and the Dims will be toast." Ken Mehlman and Karl Rove need you, Dain! Crossing our fingers you can plot the next round of Repub strategy.

You’re living up to your name, Pain. I can always tell how close Dims get to victory by how obnoxious they become. And as far as being "brain-dead," dude, even my dog could outwit you. lol

Tom Pain:

You do my name no service sir. I beseech you to cease this despicable imposture.

Wherefore, security being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows that whatever form thereof appears most likely to ensure it to us, with the least expense and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others.
Thomas Paine