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First Conservative Now a “Do Follow” Blog!

For those of you with your own websites, building links to your home page to improve placement on search engine rankings is one of the more difficult and time consuming projects. 

To help out, First Conservative Blog has pulled down the “no-follow” rule from its blog.  This means that a comment made on the First Conservative Blog will be traceable by common search engines such as Google and Yahoo!  This allows you to build backlinks much more easily, thereby strengthening the page rank of your page. 

So… please review the articles, make some comments using your home page URL, and set some track-backs.  All of this will help in your web page search rankings.

For more information, please click the Denver SEO Consultants (my other business) home page.

Thanks for reading!

The Conservative Blog world continues to be astounded at the lack of intellect on the liberal side of American life.  Witness the following Q&A.  The question came from a reader. 

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Question:

“As an Obama hating conservative, as most of you are, what specific issue do you believe that Obama should enforce that would make you not hate him so much? Or is your dislike just a done deal because he isn’t a checklist conservative?”

Reply:

The best thing Obama has done was authorize the execution of the Somali pirates holding an American sea captain hostage.  He really didn’t mean to do it, but screwed up in reverse.

This will be difficult for you, but bear with.  At least since you’ve asked the question, some hope for you might remain.

American Conservatives are Americans first.  Obama is a citizen of the world.  Every past President has seen himself as caretaker of the country for the benefit and safety of US citizens. Obama is custodian of America for the benefit of the world – not for Americans.  Otherwise, He wouldn’t have spent his entire first year apologizing to the world for what America has become.  He truly is embarrassed by His country and has said very little about its goodness or the kindness of our citizens.    With 85% of the countries that make up membership in the UN being something other than representative democracies, Obama has sought favor of the worlds tyrants and despots by degrading His country.  He is succeeding.

Conservatives have few ‘checklists’ other than “keep out of my checkbook” and “keep out of my life.”  Of course there are social issues upon which we can disagree, but the idea that Conservatism is an activist philosophy is laughable.  Therefore when Obama accuses conservatives of just saying ‘no’ to His attempts to ruin the country and its institutions (such as health care) he is correct.  Of course conservatives are the ‘party of no.’  That is by design.  The ‘checklist for being the party of ‘no’ then is really pretty short.  That is a good thing for the country. 

Conservatives learn from history.  Massive government debt in recessionary times fuels rapid inflation, kills jobs and drives a free economy into free-fall.  This was learned in 1934.  The once envied Japanese economy has been in the dung heap since the early 1990s for the same reason.   Europeans have finally thrown off (or are about to) the last leftist leaders in their midst because they are tired of an economy that taxes them to death and allows the poor zero opportunities for upward mobility. The arrogance of the Obama administration to think that the economy will behave differently because the Chosen One decrees it is nothing short of disgusting.  The Obama economic team is fueling further job losses and economic stagnation by it’s reprehensible spending.  It won’t be able to blame GW Bush much longer as even MSNBC is getting tired of this excuse.

The Chosen One promised unaffiliated voters that He was the one that could be counted on to reach across the aisle and work with Republicans.  The 15% or so of the electorate that makes up the unaffiliated voting block believed Him in 2008.  Now they’ve completely abandoned the Democrat party as the Stimulus has proven (as did Jimmy Carter in 1977) that intervention in the economy by a liberal government only drives unemployment and inflation rates up.   Unaffiliated voters are feeling very betrayed because they have been completely sold out.  Conservatives are welcoming them into sanity camp. This happens once in a generation as the teachers unions turn out enoug econommically ignorant voters to skew elections towards liberal candidates.  But once the citizens get a tase of what liberal governance does to the country, these voters generally become conservatives.  Just look at the rise of Reagan and Reaganomics;  it was made possible by the ignorance and ineptitude of James Earl Carter – peanut farmer.

This is a long way of saying that President Obama is driving the economy of the United States into the toilet.  Obama is making the world a much more dangerous place through his ignorant foreign policy.  And even for liberals, these trends have become self-evident. 

The only action Obama could take that would bring any sense of respect to America’s conservatives would be to resign.  

Conservative Blog post for November 4, 2009

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Obama’s New Paradox – Create More Hope or Fear?

EJ Dionne writes this morning that President Obama needs to invest a little time in creating an atmosphere of ‘hope’ in the country.  Dionne captured this quote from New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg following Governor Jon Corzine’s loss on Tuesday: 

“There are two things happening,” the New Jersey Democrat noted. “One is fear. The other is punishment. Voters fear for themselves and their families, and they want to punish anyone who got them into this condition.” 

This brilliant observation underscores why the GOP – if it can maintain a clear conservative message in 2010 – will absolutely wallop liberal and even so called ‘moderate’ incumbents.  Voters should indeed punish those that make their lives difficult.  It may surprise Dionne that this is the entire reason for electing leaders.  Those that serve us well receive continued employment.  Those that don’t get to stand in the unemployment line with the rest of us.

The really interesting part of this though surrounds what President Obama did or did not do to create his party’s election disasters in Virginia and New Jersey.  Exit polls repeatedly note that the condition of the economy and government spending are top areas of concern.  The fear generated by driving the economy into stagnation by state and federal governments was clearly acknowledged by voters on Tuesday.  And as Lautenberg notes, voters want to punish those that got them into this condition.   At least voters are now paying attention.

President Obama has created a hugely problematic condition for his party.  In order to win election, He had to gin up animosity and ‘fear’ about the Bush administration and about conservative leadership.  Then he had to gin up more fear about the economy to get the Stimulus passed.  And Rahm Emmanuel’s famous quote about never allowing a good crisis to go to waste kept the fear machine in high gear.  It now seems that no one at the White House figured out that sooner or later, voters would want to see some results from mortgaging their grandchildren’s future.

So what does the President do now?  He has already spent a huge amount of our money on the Stimulus package which will only produce bloated state governments and rapidly increasing inflation in 2010.  Job recovery is already choked off because the pressure the Stimulus borrowing puts on interest rates only drives commercial finance costs upwards.  And without an assurance that reasonably priced capital will be available for growth and expansion, business will not have any reason to grow and hire workers. 

President Obama certainly added to the atmosphere of fear, but now that trail is well-worn and voters are sick and tired of hearing about how after one full year, the current economic problems are still the fault of George W. Bush.  Even CNN is bound to be skeptical of administration claims that this is simply the situation the White House ‘inherited.’ 

Democrats are at their core – emotionalists.  As fear is the most powerful of emotions, Democrats have continually endeavored to increase the level of fear in the population to the point where it reached an apex in Virgina and New Jersey.   Now that these elections are concluded, the focus of voter anger is squarely directed at the Obama administration.   One year is plenty of time to start making a positive difference in the economy and there is absolutely no doubt in anyone’s mind that the economy has only worsened, despite the 3rd quarter GDP numbers being propped up by Cash for Clunkers and a trillion dollar Stimulus bill.   And the 2010 inflation will only make matters worse. 

Inspiring ‘Hope’ would take the energy out of the drive for taking over health care and driving energy taxes through the roof.   Hope would imply that the economy is improving.  Even Wunderkind Tim Geithner understands that the economy will not improve next year and only offers vague promises of stagnant jobs growth.    Besides, if Obama comes out with a modern “Morning in America” speech, it will only provide fodder for the Tea Partiers and others who understand what life is really like in American neighborhoods.  And deep down, every Obama administrator understands that a liberal takeover of institutions like health care and energy production cannot be achieved in an atmosphere of optimism. 

So look for the fear and the absolutely irrational blaming of GW Bush to continue.  MSNBC will certainly help in the effort, but the interesting player will be CNN.  After turning in a solid last place performance on election night, the CNN wizards may finally be compelled to look at what their fawning adoration of this President has done to their ratings – as well as explore how this may impact their paychecks.  

CNN is now the confirmed laughing-stock of cable news – losing even to the lunatics at MSNBC.  Unless the network returns to some form of investigative and honest journalism, the organization is headed for a terrible financial disaster.  Looking critically at the Obama administration is about this network’s only ticket out of the sewage pool it has flung itself into.  Should CNN decide to abandon its role in Obama worship, they have a shot at survival.   This would make CNN an unreliable partner with the White House for ginning up the fear they need to justify continued government expansion.

Obama really has no choice.  There will be few messages of hope in 2010 and fear should continue to be the dominant theme for 2010.  Without it, Obama can’t take over health care or energy.  But Americans want results.  One year plenty of time to wait.  And come next November, the ‘Hope and Change’ voters bring will be sweeping the House clear and putting a stop to Obama’s reckless government expansion.

Conservative Blog Post for post-election day, 2009.

Alright…. I’ll admit to being a bit hung over from the whining and carping from Democrats about how the GOP is an extremist party in the midst of am inner party civil war.   Thus the relative tardiness of today’s post.   Although your humble author picked Corzine to stuff enough ballot boxes to retain his job, the end result was better than hoped-for.  Getting whacked in your own state by 100,000 votes – even though you control all aparatichik mechanisms is outright embarrassing.   The bottom line though is that conservatives came out batting .667 in major races yesterday.  And with a batting average like that, you’ve got a good shot at the pennant.

The lone loss was in New York’s 23rd Congressional District where Conservative Candidate narrowly lost to Democrat Bill Owens – after Owens picked up the endorsement of GOP liberal Dede Scozzafava.  The Hoffman insurgency at least knocked one of the two liberals out of that race.  And the GOP would be well advised to recruit and support conservative candidates and ignore the liberal ones.  The “No Scozzis” rule, if applied next year, could yield anoter wonderful election evening.  A point of interest here:  Hoffman lost by about the number of absentee votes Scozzafava had already received by the time she dropped out of the election.  Look for Hoffman to re-arrange his schedule to make another run at this seat in 2010.

Conservtive wins in the Virginia and New Jersey Governors races clearly point to a collapse in what Democrats believed was their mandate to govern. And thankfully, even though the mandate to govern was severely deflated, the liberal leadership remains ignorant of lessons learned yesterday.  This means we can anxiously await a political blood-letting this time next year that could be nearly catastrophic for the left. We owe this all to the Democrat leadership’s inability or unwillingness to learn.

The threat to ruin American health care by taking it over and by the threat of huge energy tax increases are only the beginning.  However these two initiatives alone have Americans not only paying attention but getting active.  Leftist control depends on voters remaining passive.  When given the chance to govern though, leftist Democrats only enraged those in the popultion that work hard and pay the bills. 

Centrist  or ‘Blue Dog’ Democrats are in a real pickle now.  These Dems are fully capable of understanding the lessons learned from yesterday’s vote.   Some may actually put those lessons into practice and resist the Obama charm and subsequent intimidation efforts to finally put the health care takeover out of our misery.  Unfortunately for them, Obama’s exceptionally ambitious and hard-left agenda is already being pushed in areas other than health care.   So killing one measure such as health care won’t politically help the Blue Dogs much unless they jump ship and come over to the GOP.  If they remain Democrats, they will be sitting ducks for conservative candidates next election day.

And speaking of conservative candidates, recruitment of quality candidates got a royal shot in the arm yesterday.  Conservative candidates fared well against some well entrenched Democrats.  New Jersey in particular showed what a reasonably articulate and conservative candidate could accomplish in the face of a Democrat who couldn’t run from a record of high taxes and high unemployment.  As Democrats won’t have the unemployment situation under control next year (or ever for that matter), decent conservative candidates can now see a legitimate shot at victory. 

As long as GOP primary voters adhere to the “No Scozzis” rule (for RINO Dede Scozzafava in New York 23), conservatives should be able to ride the wave of public discontent to take over the House of Representatives.    And should Democrats keep pushing the health care disaster and the energy tax and increased cost implications contained in the Cap and Trade legisltion, Republicans should have all the ammunition they need to send Democrats into the unemployment line to join all the other Americans they deposited there. 

So as the analysis continues, the GOP must quickly gear up for the next round.  The bit of momentum gained by winning the ony two governor’s races this year could multiply into a 2010 electoral juggernaught – just as long as the ‘No Scozzi’s rule is applied.

Conservative Blog post for Election Day, 2009!

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It’s Not the Ones Who Vote that Count – It’s the Ones Who Count the Votes

A great deal will be revealed today regarding the length the liberal left will go to maintain its stranglehold on governmental power.  Off year elections have rarely produced such interest as have this year’s ‘big three’ races in New York 23, Virginia and New Jersey.  And after one year of getting used to the idea of a leftist radical leading the federal government, this is the first time voters will be allowed to provide feedback in what the media terms a ‘legitimate’ format.  (The formerly main stream media referred to the Tea Parties as isolated events ginned up by right wing nut jobs and was therefore an inappropriate measure of public attitudes.)

The big push by the federal government – to take over one sixth of the national economy by socializing the health care system – is in a holding pattern.  Liberals understand that this may be their only chance to use governmental power to take ownership over people’s individual health care rights.  As this is so vitally important to their plans to eventually take over the entire economy, Democrats can’t afford to stop the momentum now.  They must have a win somewhere today.

Leftists have written off the Virginia Governor’s race already and have turned to cannibalizing the campaign of Craigh Deeds, accusing the campaign of ignoring Obama’s help and advice.  New York’s 23rd Congressional District could also see a genuinely conservative candidate defeat both a Democrat and his liberal Republican former opponent.  Losses in these two races will be difficult enough for Team Obama’s spinmeisters to rationalize.

All of this of course brings us to the Governor’s race in New Jersey.  Corrupt Democrat Jon Corzine is spending his Goldman Sachs fortune to hang on to the office.  The negative ads he paid for out of his own fortune have nearly caught him up in the polls.  Still, every legitimate poll shows him consistently trailing Republican Chris Christie.  This of course means Christie is likely to lose – not because he got fewer actual votes than the Governor, but to election fraud.

In a little-noticed legislative move last year, Governor Corzine joined with NJ lefties to pass voting legislation legalizing third party handling of voter ballots.  This simply means that anyone can request an absentee ballot on behalf of anyone else.  Additionally, that third party can collect the absentee ballot and return it to a polling place to have it counted for the Democrat.  Corzine – drawing on his Wall Street experience – came up with this little plan when it became apparent that he would have a difficult time winning a legitimate election.

Losing in New Jersey would also make Team Obama look foolish and powerless as they invested so much of the President’s time in the Garden State.  And as this vote fraud strategy is entirely consistent with South Chicago elections, the Presidential team won’t think twice about the election’s legitimacy.  Accordingly, the White House will look the other way should Corzine emerge the surprise winner this evening. 

Hopefully there are enough honest people in New Jersey to prevent Corzine and the leftists from stealing the Governor’s office.  However, New Jersey is a solidly ‘blue’ state with several unions that have in the past been unapologetic about doing whatever was necessary to get their preferred candidate into office. 

The really interesting part to election night will be to observe CNN and MSNBC should Corzine claim enough votes for a victory.  CNN and MSNBC combined do not have the viewership of Fox News because they are simply shills for Democrat candidates.  And if these networks want to ever regain credibility, they will need to investigate why after every legitimate polling organization had Christie winning in New Jersey, that Corzine somehow eked out a win.  

Investigations of this nature aren’t too difficult.  Simply find precincts that turned in more ballots than it had registered voters and start there.  This is another frequently overlooked Chicago methodology – and one that won JFK the presidency in 1960.  Vote fraud is not new.  Investigating it would be something new and different and would open a path back into the mainstream for CNN.

This all could become academic should Christie manage a win.  Polling is genuinely very reliable.  Christie should be the next Governor of New Jersey and Corzine – once a Democrat White House hopeful – should be returned to his fishing lodge full of servants.    Stay tuned for the results on this one.  It really will provide an idea of how far the left will go to maintain its power over the voters. 

Conservative Blog post  – pre election edition for November 2, 2009

Obama’s ‘Men Who Stare at Goats’
In a weekend filled with twists and turns in the big three political races, Team Obama rolled into action to compel the once-rabid Obamnistas to again hit the streets for liberal candidates.  Unfortunately for them, the luster has worn off and many former Obama supporters are too busy looking for a job to campaign for the President’s picks.  This leaves the President’s political team looking for the real guys who can stare at goats –or preferably stare at large crowds of tea party goers – and cause them to fall over en masse.

The 2008 Presidential campaign actually did feature a liberal candidate with the ability to cause people to vote in a fashion that was clearly against their self interest.  Flocking like goats waiting to be fed, voters abandoned their sense of self-sufficiency and elected Barack Obama in 2009 to the Presidency. This phenomenon – although still under research – was originally termed “Obmamania.”  That voters would willingly throw away their rights to health care of their choice as well as approve an administration that through its surrogates would ensure that all future elections would turn out in favor of liberal candidates remains a bit of a mystery.  It seemed that Obama, as evidenced by his acceptance speech one year ago, could just stare at a crowd and the people would fall into line.  This at least worked on CNN and NBC.

MSNBC’s Chris Mathews’ leg also noticed the unusual power of Obamamania and the commentator later embarrassed himself by making the sensation public.  Mathew’s leg is a more accurate observer of US politics anyway.  Traditionally left-of-center media types are currently wringing their hands and wondering how to report their chosen candidates losing in a well-publicized set of elections on Tuesday.  The big story though is how Mathew’s leg will react to Obamamania suddenly losing all its magical powers.

New York 23
Usually, an off year special election in a fairly remote part of the Empire State wouldn’t garner much attention.  However, since the favorite media whipping person Sarah Palin made her preference known for Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman, the Republican and Democrat candidates both responded with the usual media-assisted demonization of conservative values.  This resulted in Hoffman taking an 18 point lead over Democrat Bill Owen.  The media assist in this district had an impact opposite of its intention – leaving the Conservative Party candidate poised for a huge and shocking win over both major party candidates.

New Jersey Governor
Although Governor Corzine’s retirement accounts may fuel a Democrat victory, the fact that this thing is even close is somewhat remarkable.  Even with an assist from a little known third party candidate, limousine liberal Governor Corzine has never polled greater than 50%.  In fact, the lefty Guv barely polled above 40%.  Republican Chris Christie may well pull out a win in a hugely blue state unless the Obama machine gets its ACORN volunteers to do the vote counting.  After all, it isn’t the ones who vote that count.  Rather it’s the ones who count the vote. (Just ask the ghosts of LBJ and JFK)

Virginia Governor
There will almost certainly be a conservative governor in Virgina this time around.  Democrats are at a complete loss to explain why, after the great Obama landslide in 2008 that such a large and important eastern state has betrayed them.   Team Obama has predictably responded by throwing Democrat candidate Craigh Deeds under the bus by leaking reports to the media that Deeds had rejected their advice on how to campaign in the commonwealth.  

This all leaves Team Obama looking for someone who can magically cause conservatives to fall over like stunned goats in the upcoming Clooney film.  Obama Himself made this work once, but the magic seems to have left the building.  And this time it may well wind up that their own leftist candidates are the ones who take the dive.

Conservative Blog operators frequently receive interesting questions.  This one deserved at least a bit of discussion.

Why is the US Military generally a Conservative organization?

There are a few reaons for this…

• Family Tradition
• Opportunity for education and growth
• Chance to do meaningful work

Family traditions play a large role in choosing to enlist in the military.   A young enlistee frequently has a father or mother that also served.  Those that have served understand that the military is a difficult but very honorable choice and install this belief in their children’s set of values.  Additionally, the esteem with which young military people are received – particularly in rural and southern America is also an incentive.  The chance to ‘be somebody important’ is always an attraction.

More concretely, though, the Military also provides opportunities for college and career training.  Vocational experience can be provided to young people that might not have the opportunity in their home town areas.  A military commitment is highly rewarding professionally.

No one can argue that the military does not do valuable work.  Hunting and keeping those that would kill Americans if given any chance, is highly honorable work.  It is also difficult, but as the US Armed Forces provides the best training in the world, there is an unbeatable chance to be uccessful

These point by themselves don’t explain why the military tends to be conservative. The key point is that enlisting young people that value the tradition, opportunity and opportunity to do meaningful work are by definition “Conervative.”  So in this sense, those that enlist are “Conservatives” going in.  The military simply does not attract many liberals. 

Conservatives tend to not ’shy away’ from difficult deciions and hard work.  Following orders as a team is very difficult under battle conditions.  Following orders is difficult by itself.  However, the military method of personnel management holds that from the lowest enlisted level up through the officer’s ranks, all peronnel need to be trained and capable of doing the job one or two levels (or more) above their current station.  Officers understand that the people in their command are there to be trained and groomed for greater responsibility – not to be used as fodder.

Do liberals make good soldiers?  Some certainly do.  But a key advantage to an all-volunteer Armed Forces is that commanding officers don’t have to argue senseless emotionalisms with too many of their soldiers. The military environment just doesn’t work well for leftists, who tend to blame others for problems and seem to seek out ways to make other people do the difficult work.   Young people with liberal beliefs understand that the military doesn’t tolerate a lot of argument when difficult decisions are made and have to be executed.  Accordingly, the Young Democrats don’t send many recruits to Fort Bragg. 

Ambition to better one’s self is a key part of the conservative lifestyle.  As the military offers tremendous opportunities to achieve and grow – particularly for Americans without the financial means to attend Harvard.  Young conservatives fully understand this opportunity.  If they are willing to personally work hard and be in an environment where they are accountable for their actions and decisions, the military is a great opportunity.  Interestingly, this also explains why Harvard types are so liberal – many of them are simply pursuing their entitlement of an Ivy League education and haven’t had to work all that hard to get there. 

In short, it doesn’t take much effort to be a liberal whereas it takes a thinking and rational, unemotional and ambitious individual to be conservative.  As the military attracts rational and ambitious young people, it only holds that its ranks should be filled mostly by conservatives.  And thank God for that.

Conservative Blog post for October 29, 2009.

Democrat’s Halloween Treats

With the approach of Halloween, Washington Democrats are confronting their own truly scary future.  Force-feeding takeover of the health care industry to a wary American public and dithering on extremely simple troop deployment decisions in Afghanistan have revealed that liberals truly do not know how to govern in the best interest of the country.   Of course this has scared the daylights out of US voters.

US Voters really don’t like to be scared and seem now poised to return the fear-favor to Democrats.  Specifically, elections in New Jersey, New York and Virginia are causing the lefties to wonder if they are on the precipice of a major smack-down in 2010.  Even if Democrats hang on to New Jersey and win in the special New York 23 Congressional election, the GOP is gearing up to use the Democrat’s own incompetence against them.  And after a year of leftist rule, voters have had a full view of what ‘Hope and Change’ really means.  The liberals cannot hide within the cloud of ‘Hope and Change’ any more, since the country has had a year to view them in action.

New Jersey – Limousine liberal Gov. Jon Corzine has thrown millions of his own money into defending his Governor’s job.  Once thought of as the next great leftist candidate for President, Corzine is in the fight of his political life.  If it were not for an insurgent third-party candidacy, Corzine would be headed for the election dust-bin.   His political career might end up – proverbially speaking – face down in the dumpster, but the fact that he had to drain his Goldman Sachs retirement fund to get back into the race is leaving other Dems wondering just how much George Soros has in his accounts for 2010.  And with Democrats being such wonderful custodians of other people’s money, Soros should be very worried about being drained of his incredible wealth.

If nothing else, Corzine is the new poster boy for limousine liberalism.  With 14 of the top 25 wealthiest congressional districts represented now by Democrats, the leftists have in fact overtaken the GOP as the party of the rich.  Only the Democrat economic program will prevent others from joining the club.

Also from New Jersey, it was reported that a shot was fired at the NJ home of CNN personality Lou Dobbs.  The hatred from the US left has indeed reached a boiling point.  In comparison to Pelosi’s childish whining about the level of vitriol aimed at her and her party, it is now evident for all to see that the real danger originates from those of her political persuasion.  Firing on Dobb’s house when his wife was present to hear the shot is a huge mistake by whoever is seeking to intimidate the CNN commentator.  Making Dobbs angry will only increase his exposure, celebrity status and ultimately will fuel the conservative fire for a generation over issues like immigration and the national debt.  In fact, Dobbs was so angry that he made a statement so many Americans have been fearful of saying after the assault on his home and family;  “I’m not in the mood to put up with little fools like Geraldo Rivera.”

New York 23 – When the GOP’s “Old Boy’s Club” chose lefty Dede Scozzafava to run for the open Congressional seat in New York’s 23rd Congressional District, area conservatives were outraged.  Scozzafava is essentially a Democrat with a Republican membership.  A supporter of the Stimulus and other hard-left causes, Scozzafava inspired local conservative Doug Hoffman to launch his Republican candidacy under the banner of the Conservative Party.  Recent polls have him defeating both opponents, Democrat Bill Owens with Scozzafava trailing badly with fewer than 20% of the vote.  

Hoffman picked up notable endorsements from former AK Gov. Sarah Palin and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey and has used these endorsements to launch a conservative civil war of sorts in the upstate district.  Hoffman also used these endorsements to raise boatloads of campaign cash.   Sending a clear message that the GOP must return to conservative policy positions, a Hoffman victory would significantly energize the Republican base – provided the GOP ran genuinely conservative candidates.  And Hoffman hold off the two major party powers, the GOP could well take back the House of Representatives in 2010 and seriously damage or remove leftist control in the Senate. 

Virginia – Once touted by liberals as the changing face of the country, Virginia is now poised to return to its red-state roots.  Republican Bob McDonnell has campaigned steadily on conservative economic principles.  This resulted in a double digit lead.  GOP candidates elsewhere would do well to take notes here.  Craigh Deeds – the Democrat in the race – has experience, but because the public now understands what Democrat stewardship of the economy actually means, has leaned heavily towards McDonnell.

Conservative viewers would give quite a bit to see a GOP sweep next week.   It would be even sweeter to watch the Obama apologists explain away these defeats.  In reality though, Corzine has a good shot at buying back his Governor’s job and Bill Owens in New York has a realistic shot at a Congressional seat.  Should this occur the Democrats would have prevailed only because of 3rd party insurgent candidacies.  They will of course point to any victory as a validation of the Obama strategy.  If Democrats wind up on the losing end, though, they will be compelled to dust off the ridiculous tactic of blaming Rush Limbaugh and Fox News for their defeat. 

Conservative Blog post for October 27, 2009.

An Inconvenient – and Obvious – Truth

In what is turning into a bitter October for the left, truth rearing its ugly head for our liberal friends.  The NYT reported this morning that Fox News is the dominant cable news provider.  What a shock.   It also reported that CNN was dead last for the month of October.   And to make matters more embarrassing, even Anderson Cooper who once tried to make jokes about ‘teabagging’ common in the news cycle, saw his show place behind leftist lunatic Keith Olberman.  Losing the ratings game to Olberman should be sufficient cause to find another profession.

Some years ago when Rupert Murdoch – President of the Fox Network holding company – testified before Congress, he was asked why he didn’t have a liberal running an opinion show on Fox.  “If I could find one that could get the ratings, I’d hire him” replied the Chairman.   The Congressman couldn’t understand and didn’t follow up.

The formerly main stream media has seen its flagship finally hit bottom.  With CNN resting in the cellar, the question arises about what to do now.  First, as any business usually does, the analysis begins about what caused the collapse.  However, in typical liberal fashion, execs at CNN have responded that they were the victims of the news cycle and that things should turn around when the news becomes more interesting.    Establishing victimhood is a key element in retaining one’s job.

As far as being the victim of a poor news cycle, the NYT piece fails to follow up on why these same execs don’t think that an attempted government takeover of American health care or a Presidential assault on another news organization, or an upcoming assault on the Second Amendment wouldn’t qualify as interesting news.  The truth is….the public is weary of the endless Obama cheerleading on most networks.

Of course cheerleading for liberal policy ideas is the key element in CNN’s decent; a continuous recitation of liberal talking points combined with a liberal’s view of what is working in the economy strikes most viewers as severely disconnected from reality.  CNN trumpeted this morning that the recession is over!  For the 10% of Americans who are ‘officially’ out of work and for those additional 5% to 10% who have either given up looking or are putting their MBA to work at McDonalds, hearing that the recession is over because the GDP posted a minute gain – is just silly.  And to allow the administration to continually blame others for the current situation is absolutely unbelievable and childish.  After all, most parents don’t allow their children to escape responsibility for things they’ve done by blaming others.   Most news viewers don’t allow their provider to get away with it either.

In the end, the news ratings game is a direct function of credibility.  Reporting that the recession is over, that Americans would be better off under a government run health care system (where it has arguably failed just about everywhere else), and that the Stimulus has helped create or save jobs, only hurts the credibility of those reporting it.   A critical rather than a cheerleading journalistic organization is one the public trusts. 

Inability to learn from the mistakes of others is also a hallmark of failed organizations.  CBS blazed the credibility trail when it hired Katie Couric.  Believing that Couric would attract viewers because of her cute personality was a belief that proved to be an expensive failure after one week with Katie in the Cronkite chair.   CBS mistakenly believed that cuteness and performance quality was more important than credibility.  After the one-week grace period where viewers ventured to the CBS Evening News to check out the former cheerleader in her new role, viewers returned to their old habits and returned CBS to the dumper.  Couric’s cheerleader personality and performance quality were in fact fairly good; it just wasn’t what the public wanted.

Liberals and liberal organizations always wrestle with the issue of ‘what the public wants.’  When what the public wants and what the liberals want diverge, liberals focus on the need to ‘educate’ the public.’  For that they rely on CNN, MSNBC and others except Fox.  American leftists view themselves as morally and intellectually superior and have difficulty understanding when anyone disagrees with them.  Education usually takes place with emotional diatribes that Rachel Maddow and Keith Olberman deliver, but even a hard core American lefty has trouble watching either of these two for any length of time. 

One year after the Obama election and the liberal sweep through Washington DC, the public is having difficulty watching the same liberal spewing points for any length of time.  Most of the major media have adopted a cheerleading role for the Obama administration and for the Democrat Party and as a direct result, their ratings have tanked. 

Fox News has simply performed journalism and has – because of its willingness to challenge governmental authority and policy – completely overrun its cable competitors.  In fact, most Fox News evening programs attract more viewers than MSNBC, HLN and CNN combined.    Advertisers will be none too anxious to continue funding losers that really don’t attract that many viewers.  Additionally, advertisers will be less willing to associate their products and services with an organization that the public believes is biased and not completely trustworthy.

It is no wonder that the Obama administration has chosen to freeze out Fox from covering the news.  Unfortunately, given the administration’s handling of other issues, this only damages the credibility of the other networks.  As a result, Fox ratings have continued to soar. 

The inconvenient and obvious truth to media ratings is that liberalism is losing its grip on Washington because it is losing its grip on the American voter.  Reality always causes liberalism to collapse.   Now that voters are faced with huge income and energy tax increases on the middle classes to fund the federal debt, and as Obama has not turned out to be anything remotely close to being a ‘bridge builder’ in Washington, liberals have resorted to using the media to ‘educate’ voters.  Unfortunately, most voters have tuned into Fox and are missing the lesson.

For more.. click here for the NYT write up.

Conservative Blog post for Monday, October 26.

Weekend Ostrich Award – Health Care

For choosing to bury one’s head in the sand, Washington’s Jim McDermott wins this weekend’s Ostrich Award for finding some reason to opine that Obamacare is “gaining support.”

From the Sunday NYT   “the mentality in the country is different,” (as opposed to when Hillary launched her effort to take over American health care) said Mr. McDermott, a psychiatrist who has served in Congress for two decades. “In 1993, we were talking about the uninsured as ‘them.’ Now it turns out this is for us. When a bank like Washington Mutual in Seattle lays off 3,000 people, they lose health insurance. Millions of people with insurance are asking, ‘What if I lose my job?’ ”

Actually, because of the Congressman’s past support of the Stimulus, many workers are asking “how can I get a job?”   Most people that currently have health care are primarily worried about what their new health care would cost.   The ads run by Obamacare advocates claim that medical decisions will be made by “you and your doctor.”  What they don’t say is what treatments you will be allowed to receive and when you would be allowed to receive it.   You and your doctor may decide on having a hip replacement surgery, but the Obamacare boards may very well deny your application based on their cost/benefit analysis.  You and your doctor decided to get a hip replaced, but the government wouldn’t cover the cost.

Many of us remember the psych majors who couldn’t get a real job.  McDermott still hasn’t found one.

Reverse Ostrich Award – Jobs

This one is a ‘Reverse Ostrich Award’ owing to the story’s rather surprising source.   Carolyn Lochhead, Chronicle Washington Bureau from the SF Chronicle of all places is getting one right…. “Forget a jobless recovery,” she writes, “the economy may be entering a recovery with job losses.” 

Of course this sent the leftists who by definition flunked free enterprise economics scurrying.  

Top White House economist Christina Romer of UC Berkeley (where leftist Econ majors are held in the same esteem as God) told Congress on Thursday that employment growth could remain “painfully weak” through next year, and that the largest effect from the $787 billion stimulus enacted in February, mainly aid to states, is past. By mid-2010, she said, the stimulus will no longer contribute to growth.

Romer will be interested to learn that the stimulus is strangling growth right now because of the inevitable inflationary expectation that occurs when the federal government commits to borrow an incredible sum of money and has to resort to printing at least some of what it needs.  Additionally, business is holding back on long term investment because federal government competition in the world financial markets to fund the Stimulus spending is only driving interest rates up.  Engineers, architects and other professionals that rely on the availability of reasonably priced, long term capital availability are cutting staffs as current contracts expire.  They won’t be hiring back any time soon.

Lochhead points out one other issue that those in San Francisco endeavor to ignore.

“Economists are puzzled as to why job growth has slowed, citing everything from higher health care costs, to higher productivity, to Chinese currency manipulation.  The answer is, we don’t know,” said Tim Bartik, a liberal economist with the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research in Michigan who is proposing a tax credit for employers who hire new workers.  (Where have we heard this before?) At a cost of $21,000 per job created, he said, a tax credit is far cheaper than the average $112,000 cost of each job created by the stimulus, as calculated by the administration.” Most currently unemployed taxpayers could do very well investing this $112K in a new business of their own. 

This is interesting not only in the description of Bartik as a ‘liberal economist’ but in that he supposedly understands the concept of tax credits.  This blasphemy will not go unpunished in Nancy Pelosi’s district.

This is a ‘Must Read‘ because of the source and unusual content coming from the hub of radical leftist America. 

Obama Hangover

Democrats are facing the possibility of a couple fairly major election losses in the next two weeks.  Governors races in Virginia and normally reliably blue New Jersey have the White House political machine on edge. 

Democrats have reason to be seriously worried.  Losing both elections could be that elusive anchor to reality that the Obama administration struggles to avoid.  When voters pay attention to issues like health care and energy costs instead of political platitudes such as ‘hope and change,’ Democrats are sure losers.

“Democrats are finding that the electricity of 2008 is tough to recapture”  reports the LA Times.  Terming the phenomenon “Obama Hangover,” the Times goes on to manufacture another excuse for a possible Democrat loss – the voters are just overwhelmed and tired. 

Well… not everyone is overwhelmed and tired.  Conservatives are about as energized as at any time since 1984.  An Obama Hangover may spur reasonable and rational behavior in the voting booth for several years to come.