The opinion of voters really hasn’t changed since 2004. So, as Jody Bottum explains at FIRST THINGS, there’s no reason to be discouraged about 2008:
The general victory of conservative referendum measures across the country seems to say...[c]onservatives are tired of the war, not tired of conservatism. They’ve lost patience with Republican corruption and incompetence, not with the right in general. They’ll live to regret that, I think, particularly if Justice Stevens retires from the Supreme Court next year, as it is rumored he will. But, whatever the Democrats attempt over the next two years, the presidential election of 2008 was not settled yesterday.
Surprisingly, the moonbat agrees!
This administration’s antics have been the farthest thing from conservative in several presidency’s...Jimmy Carter was more conservative than Bush! It appears the American People are hungry for a moderate, rather anyone far left OR far right. And they CAN spot the difference.
Next president a Republican? Depends on who you guys run, doesn’t it. If you’re smart, you’ll run from that fabled "base" fast as your stout legs can carry you.
What party will run the more moderate candidate?
Maybe a third party because I don’t see the Republicans willing to undergo the kind of surgery required to remove their base, or the corporate element either. Which is what would have to be done to get back to their conservative roots.
It would be like trying to seperate Siamese triplets.
I don’t think the GOP will be able to remove the "corporate element" in time for a conservative revival in 2008, but here is hoping fro 2010 or 2012...
As to the comment from FT, I want to say to this:
"They’ll live to regret that"
Not me. I made a conscious decision to stay home. As important as the judiciary is, it simply was not going to be brought back to sanity with the current GOP. You can not give up everything else, including the other two branches of government, and expect to make a lasting impact on the courts. Sanity will be brought back to the courts when sanity is brought back to the GOP...
"They’ll live to regret that, I think, particularly if Justice Stevens retires from the Supreme Court next year..."
And not to be out done, Hugh Hewitt says that Santorum will be available for the SCOTUS. Little Ricky available for the SCOTUS!
Now we know why the lunatics have always been so gung ho for the War On Drugs.
So I’m waiting for some manly NLT blogger to fill in the "Actual" column over on the 2006 Election Predictions page. Yeah, it’s gonna be painful, but somebody’s gotta do it! I think most of it can be entered at this point, no?? Also, can anyone else confirm these analyses? Are these things true (well, I’m really just talking about the final thing)?:
- Not one Democratic incumbent lost in the Senate.
- Not one Democratic incumbent lost in the House of Representatives.
- Not one Democratic incumbent lost in any state Governorship.
504 major offices were at stake and not one changed hands going Democrat to Republican.
While several past elections saw a greater number of seats changing hands, I don’t know of a more one-sided smackdown of a ruling party in U.S. history - true?
Peter Lawler:
I will repost what I wrote in another post about your belief that the elections showed voters were "conservative." I posted it late in the thread and perhaps you did not see it.
I am a bit confused how you could say yesterday’s election showed voters were "conservative." Maybe we define the term differently? I read a gay marriage ban failed in Arizona, but I guess it passed in VA, so even there, minimum wage increases passed in 6 states, the South Dakota abortion ban failed by a lot, and in Missouri they approved stem cell research. How in the world is any of that conservative?
In Ohio, Brown ran a classical liberal campaign (in my opinion). His message seemed to be Ohio has a bad economy, I will get government to give us jobs. Strickland seemed to have the same theme. I do not know how much more liberal and anti-conservative that can be.
"particularly if Justice Stevens retires from the Supreme Court next year, as it is rumored he will."
That statement is laughable. Stevens’ retirement has been "rumored" for years. My guess is he’s got 15-20 years left in him before he even considers retirement. Secondly, even if he did and Bush was forced by Chairman Leahy to choose a moderate to replace Stevens, would that be so bad. Given the choice, I’ll take a moderate over a liberal any day.
Good point about the conservatives not getting tired of conservatism. Many stayed home this year, many cast a protest vote for someone they hate. Lets hope we got all our anger out of our system so we can be united for the 2008 races.