Republican Silver Linings?

I have been watching our political parties’ convention events the last couple of weeks and am pretty encouraged by what I have seen. The Democrats were as obnoxious and shrill as they normally are in their over-the-top condemnation of George Bush or any other Republican President in the past, how the world has lost respect for us, the world is more dangerous today because of Bush’s “bullying” “unilateral interventions and foreign policy “blunders”. It is always the worst economy in 40 to 50 years in the Liberal Democrat mind. Obama was his usual slick self in laying out his vision for America, creating social injustice in the minds of the public and selling the old tried and untrue liberal answers to our Country’s ills—whether they truly exist or not—actually presenting plans that will only make matters worse or create additional problems for the future like FDR, LBJ, and the great (ingrate) Jimmie Carter: plans that will increase taxation, spending, size of government, and cost of living for all of us.

The Republican Convention provided me with hope. As I mentioned in my earlier blog, I am waiting for an American Maggie Thatcher to vote for. From the speech she gave a couple of nights ago, I am inclined to believe that we may have her in Sarah Palin. I think a virtual political star was born Wednesday night in Sarah Palin. Palin could not have given a more powerful speech to fire up the conservative base of the Republican Party and attract some conservative-thinking unaffiliated independents. She was brilliant in her gentle attacks on Obama and company (media included) with a smile on her face. She was truly fun to watch. Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani were also very good at presenting the case for McCain, using their humor to skewer the “anointed one” and his “disciples”. Even John McCain, himself, gave a passably good speech, laying out the big differences between him and his opponent and blasting both parties for dropping the ball. We could have made good progress with a Republican majority in congress and residency in the White House, but the republicans squandered that opportunity, a major gripe for most Conservatives during the past seven years and big reason they allowed the Dems to take control two years ago. McCain pinpointed the problem in his speech and promised to do his duty in reducing spending, cutting taxes, where he could, and using his veto pen overtime. Such promises in combination with the advent of Sarah Palin are the silver lining we have been looking for on an extremely cloudy political day for conservative Republicans.

So, it looks to me like we may well win this thing after all. With the Republican Convention behind us, I feel pretty confident that the Republicans will get a significant bump in the polls. We will still have to deal with the mainstream media, who are firmly in the tank for Obama, but their over-reaching attacks and investigations and criticisms of Sarah Palin will likely create a backlash further exciting the Conservative voters into action that much more. The polls typically favor the left because of the way they are constructed, in my mind, so we can expect that tie in the polls will actually favor the Republicans. So, if it’s close or the Republicans have a slight lead, I will feel comfortable about a win for the presidency. But we will need to do some heavy lifting still for Congress. The veto pen will help us keep the status quo on legislation and the power to nominate judges will help us to possibly hold our own on federal judge appointments. A friendly or fearful Congress will make our efforts to change Washington much easier. Hope and change!